CALLS FOR URGENT INTERVENTION BY PM TO SOLVE THE STALEMATE

Sunday, September 11, 2016

MILITARY UPS ANTE ON PAY ANOMALIES : WANT PAY REVISION HELD UNTIL ANOMALIES SOLVED - BY RAJAT PANDIT

New Delhi

The armed forces have upped the ante in their ongoing struggle for resolution of “core anomalies“ in their salary packages by asking the Centre to keep in “abeyance“ the implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) for them.

The Army , Navy and IAF headquarters have also issued signals to their 14 lakh personnel to hold their peace till they get the Centre to resolve the persisting anomalies.

Though couched in conciliatory terms, the signals are reflective of the widespread outrage in the military over how successive panels have degraded its status, parity and equivalence compared to civilian counterparts.

For instance, one of the signals issued on Friday -to personnel deployed in different operational commands, formations and units around the country -says: “In the interim, personnel are expected to display maturity and patience, and not be swayed by hearsay or speculative reports from any quarter.“

“The signals are meant to calm down restive personnel by telling them the Service HQs are raising with the government the pay anomalies that need to be resolved.

Otherwise, in these days of social media, personnel can easily fall prey to rumours,“ said an officer.

As was first reported by TOI last month, the three Service chiefs -Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, General Dalbir Singh Suhag and Admiral Sunil Lanba -had also written to PM Narendra Modi in a last-ditch effort to get their concerns addressed.

The 33 lakh central government civilian employees have already begun to get their new enhanced salaries under the 7th CPC -along with arrears from January 1 -from this month onwards after their new pay-scales were earlier notified by the government.The notification for the armed forces, in turn, was issued on Tuesday .

But it merely deleted the controversial line that held additional levels were being added to the defence pay matrix to “maintain parity“ with the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like BSF , CRPF and the like.

“In effect, military officers, who were earlier equated with the IPS if not the IAS, have been reduced to the level of the paramilitary ,“ said another officer.

TOI last month, the three Service chiefs -Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, General Dalbir Singh Suhag and Admiral Sunil Lanba -had also written to PM Narendra Modi in a last-ditch effort to get their concerns addressed.

The 33 lakh central government civilian employees have already begun to get their new enhanced salaries under the 7th CPC -along with arrears from January 1 -from this month onwards after their new pay-scales were earlier notified by the government.

The notification for the armed forces, in turn, was issued on Tuesday . But it merely deleted the controversial line that held additional levels were being added to the defence pay matrix to “maintain parity“ with the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like BSF , CRPF and the like.“In effect, military officers, who were earlier equated with the IPS if not the IAS, have been reduced to the level of the paramilitary ,“ said another officer.

One of the main anomalies raised earlier was the “artificial suppression of entry-level pay in each rank“ for the armed forces. Another issue is the denial of higher military service pay (MSP) for junior commissioned officers (JCOs).

SOURCE : TIMES OF INDIA, HYDERABAD