Jammu:
An employees union Tuesday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention
for early release of the Seventh Pay Commission award.The
National Mazdoor Conference (NMC) President Subash Shastri sought the Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention for early release of Seventh Pay
Commission award for central government employees and requested him to ask the
Empowered Committee of Secretaries (COS) to early finalize the review of the
Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for cabinet nod.
Shastri
has expressed concern over the slow processing of Seventh Pay Commission recommendations
implementation.Shastri
also urged Prime Minister Modi to provide sufficient fund to state governments
for starting their preparation to implement the Seventh Pay Commission
recommendations for state government employees.
An
Empowered Committee of Secretaries, headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, has
been set up on January 27, to process for implementation the report of the
Seventh Pay Commission.The
first meeting of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries was held on Tuesday to
formulate action points for processing Seventh Pay Commission report but the
minutes of the meeting
were not released on Tuesday.
An
Implementation Cell has also been created in the Finance Ministry which works
as the Secretariat of the Committee.
The
900-page report of the Seventh Pay Commission headed by Justice A K Mathur was
presented to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on November 19 with a recommendation
that the new scales will be implemented from January 1 this year.
The
pay commission recommended a 14.27 per cent increase in basic pay, the lowest
in 70 years. The previous Sixth Pay Commission had recommended a 20 per cent hike
which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.
The
Pay Commission has recommended a total 23.55 per cent increase in salary,
allowances and pension, along with a virtual one rank one pension (OROP) for
central government employees.
The
minimum pay has been recommended to be raised to Rs 18,000 per month from
current Rs 7,000 while the maximum pay, drawn by the Cabinet Secretary, has
been fixed at Rs 2.5 lakh per month from current Rs 90,000. For the Secretaries
it has been fixed at Rs 2.25 lakh as against Rs 80,000 currently.
The
Empowered Committee may bring slight changes to the Pay Commission
recommendation within the government’s expenditure Rs 1.02 lakh crore in 2016.In
a significant recommendation, the Pay Commission’s report favored introduction
of a health insurance insurance scheme for central government employees and
pensioners and doubling the gratuity ceiling to Rs 20 lakh.
