By IANS,
New Delhi : Unhappy with the lowering of parity in payscales in comparison with the bureaucracy and paramilitary forces, the armed forces have drawn Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s attention to the issue rising from the Sixth Pay Coommission’s recommendations.
The Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman and Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta met the prime minister Thursday and discussed the issue with him.
“Admiral Mehta has gone to the prime minister to brief him about his recent visit to Japan and South Korea and seized the opportunity to draw his attention to the erosion of parity between the armed forces officers and their civilian and paramilitary counterparts,” a senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is understood that the prime minister assured the naval chief that he would consider the issue.
Ahead of meeting the prime minister, Mehta wrote to Defence minister A.K. Antony Sep 1 that these “core issues” would affect the joint operations of the armed forces and paramilitary forces. He also asked the cabinet, rather than the anomalies committee, to consider their demands over the pay panel report.
“The command and control functions will be seriously hampered between the army, BSF (Border Security Force) and CPMF (Central Paramilitary Forces), and infighting will jeopardize the operations,” the letter says.
The reviewed report of the Sixth Pay Commission has upgraded the civilian and paramilitary counterparts of officers of the rank of lieutenant colonel and equivalent to the higher pay band.
Due to this, civilian officers who were in the lower pay bracket and were hitherto drawing lesser pay than lieutenant colonels and officers of equivalent rank would now draw a higher basic salary.
Following the revised report, even a short service commissioned officer in the paramilitary forces will get a higher pay than most permanent commissioned officers in the armed forces.
Besides drawing higher pay, the civilian and paramilitary officials have gained ascendancy in terms of ranks over their armed forces counterparts.
As the armed forces and paramilitary forces have to work in tandem, Mehta has underscored that this lack of parity is “unacceptable” to the officers belonging to the senior services – the army, navy and air force.
He urged the defence minister that the parity between the armed forces and paramilitary and bureaucracy be “immediately restored”.
Earlier, the Personnel Below Officer Ranks (PBORs) used to draw a pension in proportion to their years of service, but after the reviewed report the PBORs will get pension half of their last pay drawn.
“The PBORs are put at a disadvantage as due to truncation of career they retire early and draw lesser pay relatively and hence end up getting lesser pension,” Mehta said in the letter.
Mehta has also asked for inclusion of the officers of the rank of Lt. Gen. and equivalent in the “Higher Administrative Grade Plus” category, created in all services except the armed forces. The director generals have been placed in the HAG plus category.
Earlier, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major, as officiating chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, had written to Antony urging him to intervene before the government implemented the pay panel recommendations.
The report of the Sixth Pay Commission, headed by Justice (retd) B.N. Srikrishna, was submitted to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram March 24.
It led to protests from both civilian and defence personnel, following which the government appointed a committee under Cabinet Secretary K. Chandrashekhar to study the various demands for financial corrections.