Sunday, September 28, 2008

Committee set up to address pay grievances of armed forces

Committee set up to address pay grievances of armed forces

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister on Saturday intervened from New York to avert an unprecedented revolt by the 15-lakh strong Armed Forces, refusing to accept the Sixth Pay Commission pay-scales that put their officers below the equivalent civilian posts of IAS and IPS cadres.

Just a day after the chiefs of the three Services ordered submission of September's pay bills to the Defence Ministry's accounts office in old pay-scales, the government set up a 3-member ministerial panel to examine their grievance of the raw deal and Defence Minister A K Antony promised to settle their issue "by Diwali."

The Services responded to Antony's assurance, deciding to accept the revised pay scales "for the moment" and submit the pay bills on Monday as per the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee head the panel with Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as its members that will try to sort out the refusal by the three Service chiefs to implement the "discriminatory" pay scales that put their officers at "disadvantage" vis-a-vis the civilian IAS and IPS officers.
Read more:
http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17137&Itemid=88

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