Government
employees have asked the Centre to consider merging dearness allowance with
their pay, arguing that the Sixth Pay Commission — quite like the Centre —
could not have anticipated the high inflation that has eroded real wages over
the last decade.
Since
2006 – when the recommendations of the last pay commission came into force –
the dearness allowance has increased to 90%, a reflection of the high inflation
environment that employees have to cope up with.
The
demand was made at a preliminary meeting held between the department of
personnel and the employee representatives to discuss the proposed Seventh Pay
Commission announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September.
Congress
media department chief Ajay Maken had asked the Prime Minister to announce the
next pay commission in March this year. Writing in his capacity as a cabinet
minister, Maken had also argued for a liberal increase in the salaries of
government officials to attract and retain talent.
Representatives
of government employees weren’t as optimistic.
Umraomal
Purohit, secretary, staff side, however, did stress on the merger of dearness
allowance (DA) with the basic pay. Purohit said that the sixth pay commission
did not recommend merger as they could not have anticipated a high rate of
inflation which resulted in employees being granted a 90% rate of DA.
Purohit
and other representatives also emphasized that a system should be put in place
to ensure that anomalies created due to recommendations of pay commissions
should be resolved within a year of the implementation of the report.
Government
sources said the pay commission could be notified over the next two months or
so, well before the model code of conduct for the general elections kicks in.
Also, the Centre is expected to give the panel enough time to prepare its
report in the hope that the government would be a lot more comfortable
vis-a-vis the fiscal deficit by the time the panel submits its report
source:
Hindustan Times
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