Civil Services officers meet Union Minister over 7th Pay Commission

Civil Services officers meet Union Minister over 7th Pay Commission 

 Daily News & Analysis Sun, 27 Mar 2016-09:57pm , New Delhi , PTI

A confederation of civil services officers association on Sunday met Union Minister Jitendra Singh and requested him to alter the composition of a high-powered panel created recently to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission as they were “apprehensive” of its neutrality.

The confederation members led by the Convenor and General Secretary of the All India IRS (Income Tax) Jayant Mishra, Gen Secretary of the IPS Association P V Ramasastry and President of the Indian Information Service (IIS) Ranjana Dev Sarmah including office bearers of four other services met Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

The delegation of the Confederation of Civil Service Associations (CoCSA) said Singh, assured them that their concerns will be “appropriately examined.” “The Government has formed a Committee of Secretaries to examine the Report of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

Unfortunately, eight of the 13 members of the Committee belong to one particular Service and therefore the CoCSA is apprehensive of its neutrality on issues related to parity and equality of opportunities.

“We, therefore request the Government to implement inter Service parity related issues as recommended by a majority decision of the Pay Commission as such because the recommendations have been made by a body headed by retired Supreme Court Judge which has meticulously examined the issues for about 20 months after a wide consultation with all the stakeholders.

“If the Government, however, feels the necessity to examine the matter further, it may be done by a Service neutral body and not the present Committee,” the confederation said. The Centre, in January this year, had set up a high-powered panel headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission which will have bearing on the remuneration of 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.

The group of civil servants also expressed their grievances in the delay in empanelment of their respective cadres for working in higher government posts.

“It may be recollected that the Commission (7th Pay Commission) recommended with a 2:1 majority, to end the exclusive edge to the IAS in the matters of pay, deputations and promotions. It is also relevant to consider that successive Commissions/Committees namely the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission, Surindernath Committee and the Hota Committee”.

The Sixth Pay Commission had previously recommended to replace the opaque and inequitable senior management selection system in the Government with a more objective and transparent process that provided equitable opportunities of competition to all the eligible Services. None of the recommendations have so far been implemented.

“More recently, the 3 to 10 years gap in the empanelment came to the adverse notice of the highest office of the country but still not much improvement has been noticed so far and one more junior batch of IAS has since been empanelled. CoCSA had earlier represented to the Cabinet Secretary on the need for constitution of a more balanced body for examination of the Pay Commission report but no positive outcome has come. Given such a background, CoCSA felt the need to meet the Minister-in-charge of Personnel and Administration and apprise him of the developments,” it said in a statement.

The implementation of the new pay scales is estimated to put an additional burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore on the exchequer in 2016-17. Subject to acceptance by the government, they will take effect from January 1, 2016. The Empowered Committee of Secretaries will function as a Screening Committee to process the recommendations with regard to all relevant factors of the Commission in an expeditious detailed and holistic fashion.

Read at DNA