Saturday, March 26, 2016

Central Government Employees Begin Countdown for Implementation of 7th CPC Recommendations


7th-CPC-implementation-countdown-begins

As per the reports received, the 7th Pay Commission Pay recommendations may be notified in June after the model code of conduct of states polls which in place is in place till 21st May 2016, said , P.S.Prasad General Secretary, Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers Karnataka State.



Central Government Employees Begin Countdown for Implementation of 7th CPC Recommendations – The Staff side JCM in its two round of meetings with the Empowered Committee of Secretaries had demanded major changes in the 7th CPC recommendations.

Central government employees have begun the countdown for the Centre to notify implementation of 7th CPC recommendations.

“As per the reports received, the 7th Pay Commission Pay recommendations may be notified in June after the model code of conduct of states polls which in place is in place till 21st May 2016, said , P.S.Prasad General Secretary, Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers Karnataka State.

The Staff side JCM in its two round of meetings with the Empowered Committee of Secretaries had demanded major changes in the 7th CPC recommendations, especially on the minimum wage, fitment formula, pay matrix and allowances.

Prasad added that the Empowered Committee of Secretaries may call the staff side JCM for more discussions, if the talks fail then the Central Government Employees should prepare for the indefinite strike from July 11 for which the staff side JCM has already given the call.

Earlier the employees federation had planned to go on strike from April 11, but due to the timing of the state assembly elections and implementation of ongoing model code of conduct, the federation decided that the employees would go on indefinite strike from July 11.

Once the implementation cell of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries gives final touch to the report, its recommendations will be send to the Prime Minister’s Office for nod. Subsequent to which the report will be placed before the Cabinet for approval. The entire process is expected to take another three months.

Source: Zee News

Aadhaar Mandatory for Central Pensioners Bank Accounts

The Central government is trying to make Aadhaar mandatory for central government pensioners, Accordingly, it has launched a massive exercise to encourage them to seed their bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers. 

Aadhaar Mandatory for Central Pensioners – District Collectors across the country have been roped in for the exercise by the Union Ministry of Personnel.

The Central government is trying to make Aadhaar mandatory for central government pensioners, Accordingly, it has launched a massive exercise to encourage them to seed their bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers.

Every central government pensioners has started receiving a telephone call or a postcard from their bank managers appealing to them to do so.

District Collectors across the country have been roped in for the exercise by the Union Ministry of Personnel.

Last week, the Central government held a video-conference with 200 collectors and asked them to convene a special meeting with all bank branch managers.

The bank managers started calling central government pensioners from Tuesday, who draw pension from their respective banks, appealing to them to voluntarily seed their existing Aadhaar numbers in the pension accounts while explaining the benefits of the step.

Once the seeding happens, the pensioner can online submit a ‘Jeevan Praman’ certificate annually to the bank to renew his pension, instead of physically making the trip to the bank to prove that he is alive.

‘Jeevan Praman’ is a pet project of Modi launched in 2014. “14 lakh central government pensioners have seeded their pension accounts with an Aadhaar number but there are 44 lakh central government pensioners.

Our aim is to speak to all 640-odd DCs in the country by video-conference in the next couple of months to exhort them to get bank managers on board and achieve 100% seeding of all pension accounts with Aadhaar in the next 4-5 months,” a senior government official with Ministry of Personnel said.

Bank managers are being asked to either personally call on the mobile phone or landline number of the pensioner or send him or her a postcard or SMS with the appeal.

DMs have been asked to submit a report to the Centre on the exercise on March 29 and a review is scheduled for April 2.

Parliament had earlier this month passed the Aadhaar bill, making an Aadhaar number mandatory for availing public services.

“Jeevan Praman or a digital life certificate is also a service for pensioners on basis of Aadhaar but we are keeping it voluntary so far. It’s in benefit of the aged pensioners to have the facility to avoid trips to banks,” a senior official of Ministry of Personnel said.

Source: ET

Military seethes at 7th Pay Commission Suggestions

The 7th Pay Commission recommendations, have aroused bitter resentment within the military. On March 11, the three service chiefs made a presentation to the “Empowered Committee of Secretaries”.

Military seethes at 7th Pay Commission Suggestions – The military chiefs have argued strongly before the “Empowered Committee” that the military – which they term “the instrument of last resort” – does not have the option of “handing over an adverse situation to any other government agency”.

The 7th Pay Commission recommendations, have aroused bitter resentment within the military. On March 11, the three service chiefs made a presentation to the “Empowered Committee of Secretaries”, a 13-member panel headed by the cabinet secretary, which is looking into the recommendations. The army, navy and air force are waiting to see if this panel will tone down clauses that former army chief VP Malik has termed “a killer for the military.”

This impression is rampant amongst soldiers, sailors and airmen, even though the 7th Pay Commission has raised baseline military salaries by about 15 per cent, taking the pay of a lieutenant (the entry grade for officers) to Rs 56,100 per month; and that of a sepoy (the entry grade for ratings) to Rs 21,700 per month. This is significantly lower than the 40 per cent increases handed out by the Fifth and Sixth Pay Commissions. One of the Seventh Pay Commission members, Rathin Roy, underlining the imperative to curb government spending, has admitted unapologetically: “We are the stingiest pay commission, ever.”

In addition to pay, soldiers get a special allowance called “military service pay”, which exists in most militaries in forms such as the British army’s “X-Factor Pay”. The Seventh Pay Commission raises it for officers from Rs 6,000 to Rs 15,500 per month; and for persons below officer rank from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,200 per month.

In addition, soldiers get a “risk and hardship allowance”, based on the profile allocated to every military station. The highest grade on the matrix is Rs 25,000 per month, but serving on the Siachen Glacier and Antarctica entitles a soldier to a special grade of Rs 31,500 per month.

Totting up these allowances, the 7th Pay Commission chairman, Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur, in an interview to The Economic Times on December 20, claimed he had recommended 30 per cent higher salaries for the military than civilian services would draw.

His logic was based on the dubious premise that military service pay constitutes a component of salary. In western military salary structures, such allowances are not salary, but compensation for the “intangible hardships” of military service. These include long separation from families, wives being unable to work, and children changing schools frequently and growing up without their father, et cetera.

During its deliberations, the 7th Pay Commission asked the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses to compare military salaries in India with those of major foreign armed forces. While the IDSA study was relatively unbiased, the Commission chose to interpret them selectively, applying purchasing power parity to boost the value of Indian military salaries; and then comparing them with the per capita income of the concerned country. Given India’s abysmal per capital income, military salaries look good by comparison. The Seventh Pay Commission uses this to argue that India’s military is paid very well by international standards.

Since the hefty raises of the Fifth and Sixth Pay Commissions, few soldiers claim they are poorly paid. Even so, festering resentment stems from the widespread belief that civilian officials, particularly from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), conspire to whittle away the military’s relative status. Soldiers point to a host of generous allowances and the assured promotion benefits that are triggered for entire civilian batches as a result of the first officer of that batch getting promoted. A key element of this was instituted by the Sixth Pay Commission through a mechanism called “non-functional financial upgrade”.

This mandates that when an IAS officer from a particular batch is promoted to a certain rank, all his batchmates from some sixty Group ‘A’ central services also start drawing the higher pay scale two years later, irrespective of competence or vacancies in that rank. The military had taken up a case for a similar upgrade, but this was not agreed to. The Seventh Pay Commission does not recommend its extension to the military either.

Thus, while practically every civilian central service officer would make it to the top pay grades, the army will remain a sharply pyramidal meritocracy, where less than one per cent of officers are promoted to lieutenant general rank (higher administrative grade, in pay commission scales). Those soldiers who do not make the cut – including meritorious officer, who are held back only because of limited promotion vacancies at each rank – are entitled to neither the power nor the pelf of higher rank since the army has no non-functional financial upgrade. The military’s demand for parity has been one of the five “core anomalies” of the Sixth Pay Commission, and was strongly pressed before the “Empowered Committee” last week.

Adding to the bitterness amongst soldiers is the argument, increasingly voiced by civil service officers, that soldiers’ emoluments should be evaluated in terms of “cost-to-company”, taking into account all their emoluments and facilities. Top generals argue that the armed forces constitute “the cheapest gun fodder”, since they incur the least lifetime cost to the government. They point out that soldiers incur the lowest induction cost, since they do not get paid salary during their training period, unlike civilian officers and the Central Armed Police Forces. They have the lowest retention cost, since they retire early, thus drawing salaries for less time than civilian counterparts; and they also have the lowest advancement cost, since relatively small numbers are promoted to higher rank, leaving many languishing at lower pay grades. Finally, soldiers also incur the lowest pension costs, since their pensions are fixed at 50 per cent of the last pay drawn – at lower pay grades in most cases.

The army has slowly – and sullenly – come to terms with the “first amongst equals” status of the IAS, which has been inexorably institutionalised since the Third Pay Commission noted that “an IAS officer gets an unequalled opportunity of living and working among the people, participating in planning and implementation of developmental programmes, working with the Panchayati Raj institutions, coordinating the activities of government departments in the district and dealing directly with the problems of law and order.” Given this, the Third Pay Commission granted the IAS (and the Indian Foreign Service) three extra increments at each of three successive seniority grades – senior time scale, junior administrative grade and selection grade – to which IAS officers are promoted at four, nine and 13 years of service, respectively. Since the other services got just one increment at these grades, IAS/IFS officers accumulate six extra increments by the time they have served 13 years. This lead in emoluments continues through their service.

However, successive governments have ensured the military remains the “first amongst uniformed services.” The Seventh Pay Commission now upsets this balance by recommending that “the criticality of functions at the district administration level holds good equally for the IAS, Indian Police Service (IPS) as well as the Indian Forest Service (IFoS).” It recommends that six additional increments be extended also to the IPS and IFoS.

The military chiefs have argued strongly before the “Empowered Committee” that the military – which they term “the instrument of last resort” – does not have the option of “handing over an adverse situation to any other government agency”. They have argued that, while the police and central armed police force personnel often lay down their lives, including in cross border firing, they incur a “lower level of risk” compared with the armed forces, which “actively seek encounters with terrorists and close combat with the enemy, despite the high risk of death”. The chiefs have argued that military service demands higher levels of proficiency, commitment and sense of sacrifice.

There is little to suggest, however, that the government is listening. The anomalies of the Sixth Pay Commission still remain unresolved, including the five “core anomalies” that include the military’s demand for non-functional financial upgrade. A committee of secretaries that was constituted in 2011 heard the military for a month and then tossed the ball into the court of the Seventh Pay Commission. There is little to suggest the military’s current representations would be treated with greater sensitivity.

Source: BS

6th Pay Commission Dearness Allowance ends with 6% hike at 125%

6th Pay Commission Dearness Allowance ends with 6% hike at 125%

Cabinet approves 6 percent Dearness Allowance hike for Central Government employees

“In the 7th Pay Commission report, submitted to the government on 19.11.2015, it was mentioned that the DA is assumed to be 125 percent as on 1 January, 2016, the day from which the
Commission expects its recommendations to be implemented by the government. As calculated by the 7th Pay Commission, a six percent Dearness Allowance hike is being given to the Central Government employees.”


The Dearness Allowance (DA) is paid to Central Government employees to adjust the cost of living and to protect their Basic Pay from erosion in the real value on account of inflation. Presently, DA is based on the All India Consumer Price Index (Industrial Workers).

On 23.03.2016, Wednesday, the Centre decided to give a Dearness Allowance of 6 percent to the Central Government employees in order to enable them to manage the price rise and inflation.

On the occasion of Holi, a special cabinet meeting, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was held in New Delhi on 23rd March 2016. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Ravishankar Prasad, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, spoke to the reporters. He said, “The cabinet has decided to issue a Dearness Allowance of six percent to the Central Government employees and pensioners.”

The Dearness Allowance is expected to be calculated from January 1, 2016 onwards. This increases the total Dearness Allowance from 119 percent to 125 percent. More than 50 lakh Central Government employees and 58 lakh pensioners will benefit from this. The government will incur an additional financial burden of Rs.14,725 crores. Dearness Allowance is issued twice a year, based on inflation. The previous Dearness Allowance hike, of six percent, was issued in the month of September 2015, and had a retrospective effect from July 2015 onwards.

This is the last and final instalment of Dearness Allowance calculated by the recommendations of 6th Pay Commission. And, after implementation of 7th Pay Commission the new and first Dearness allowance from 1.7.2016 will be approved by the Cabinet in the middle of September 2016.

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