Struggle Over 7th Pay Commission
In what has given a fresh impetus to distrust between the armed forces and the government an RTI has come to fore further exacerbating the ongoing agitation over implementation of one rank one pension policy.
“We thought it was the pay commission that was selling us short, but this RTI actually revealed it was the Ministry of Defence officials,” said an officer at army headquarters, requesting not to be named.
In their presentations to the pay commission the three services raised a number of issues, but when the pay commission sought the defence ministry’s comments and recommendation, the ministry negated most of the demands of the services, the officer said.
On the issue of pay to Lt Colonels and Colonels, a major cause of concern among the armed forces, the defence ministry said in its reply to RTI application, “The basis of this demand i.e. merger of rank pay in basic pay was examined in a detailed matter by the Pranab Mukherjee committee report and the same was not accepted hence the case is not supported.”
Similarly, on the demand for equal work for armed forces personnel and civilians working side by side, the ministry said the concept of equal pay and equal work in this case is not feasible since the service conditions and the nature of job of services personnel and defence civilians are totally different.
On the issue of parity between civilians and central armed police forces, the ministry said that the army being a fighting force has its own command and control functions in its hierarchy and hence no comparison can be made with the civilians.
The ministry’s views, when read alongside the recommendations of the pay commission, do little to win the confidence of the armed forces, a senior army officer said, especially since the hardship allowances, disability allowances and basic pay scales of Colonels and Brigadiers have been reduced as compared to their counterparts in IAS, IPS and other allied services.
“I will have young officers and men fighting heavily armed terrorists in counter-insurgency areas and getting 5,000-10,000 rupees for their risk, while a bureaucrat posted at Guwahati will get five times for his hardship,” the officer said.
The anomalies of the Sixth Pay commission have been left unaddressed by the Seventh Pay Commission to further disadvantage of the armed forces, he said.
Read at: Economic Times
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COMMENTS
When the armed forces pension was reduced from 70% to 50% in 1973, they coolly digested it and did not make slightest noise. Why are they creating problems for Modi ji now? After all Babu ji's are closer to Mantri jis,and have direct contact with them every day. Have patience. May be 8th pay commission will rectify this situation.
Most of the officers are fighting for their sefishness not for bbor they are misusing the pbor toget their benifits only during the orop commission they think only about benifits, During the service also they teat as asleeves.such trend has to be change,govt did not justified in orop for pbor how can be the service 15 and 25 will be equal basic pay. What about the additional service beifits. OROP commission clarifi it. Some forces have given anual increament and some forces have not given,otherwise the govt has fix the basic pay equal to 15ys and 33yrs, why should some has given anual increment on their orop pension some has not dmgiven why this orop drama all must be correct it before 31mar2016.
The Service Chiefs must come forward and put the just demands before the government, if not they are not fit to hold their commands. Why this weakness before the bureaucrats and politicians, is it for few crumbs?
Totally agree.
Politicians know that there won't be any politically motivated strike from the highly disciplined soldiers. So they can make any kind of adjustments. The knowledge of rank structure and the importance of each rank and daily routine work of a soldier from sepoys to general during peace and war as well as for natural calamities are not at all considered either in the OROP or 7th CPC. In my opinion the concept of OROP must be applicable only for those service where retirement age is less than that of the retirement of central government employs. In most cases PBOR retire around 50years of age. Late marriage among the soldiers and family commitment is at the peak when he retire at an early age.Rank and age on retirement is inversely proportional and loss is more at the lower rank and less in case of higher rank. They are deprived of 50% of basic pay and DA and 100% of freebies and allowances. So far no government consider the hardship of a retired soldier and I am sure they don't have enough time to spare on this subject. If a proper study is required the government must send defence secretary on duty for one year in an active unit deployed in high altitude area. Providing the tent accommodation of OR and food from OR mess. I am sure no civilian officer will stay one week in the unit under the condition mentioned above. Unless they realise the exact problem they see the smiling face of the soldier and they think these soldiers are happy and there is no problem in their uniformed life.