Seventh Pay Commission Report

The Seventh Pay Commission led by Justice AK Mathur has just submitted its report to the Central government, recommending a modest 16 percent hike in salary but a 63% increase in allowances and 24 percent hike in pensions. This means the overall hike for central government employees and its pensioners comes to 23.5 percent. This compares poorly with the 35 percent hike after the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission were implemented.

Highlights of Recommendations of Seventh Central Pay Commission 

Recommended Date of implementation: 01.01.2016

Minimum Pay: Based on the Aykroyd formula, the minimum pay in government is recommended to be set at Rs 18,000 per month.

Maximum Pay: Rs 2,25,000 per month for Apex Scale and Rs 2,50,000 per month for Cabinet Secretary and others presently at the same pay level.

Financial Implications:The total financial impact in the FY 2016-17 is likely to be Rs 1,02,100 crore, over the expenditure as per the ‘Business As Usual’ scenario.  Of this, the increase in pay would be Rs 39,100 crore, increase in allowances would be Rs 29,300 crore and increase in pension would be Rs 33,700 crore.

Out of the total financial impact of Rs 1,02,100 crore, Rs 73,650 crore will be borne by the General Budget and Rs 28,450 crore by the Railway Budget.

In percentage terms the overall increase in pay & allowances and pensions over the ‘Business As Usual’ scenario will be 23.55 percent. Within this, the increase in pay will be 16 percent, increase in allowances will be 63 percent, and increase in pension would be 24 percent.

The total impact of the Commission’s recommendations are expected to entail an increase of 0.65 percentage points in the ratio of expenditure on (Pay+Allowances+ Pension) to GDP compared to 0.77 percent in case of VI CPC.

New Pay Structure: Considering the issues raised regarding the Grade Pay structure and with a view to bring in greater transparency, the present system of pay bands and grade pay has been dispensed with and a new pay matrix has been designed. Grade Pay has been subsumed in the pay matrix. The status of the employee, hitherto determined by grade pay, will now be determined by the level in the pay matrix.

Fitment: A fitment factor of 2.57 is being proposed to be applied uniformly for all employees.

Annual Increment: The rate of annual increment is being retained at 3 percent.

Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP): 

Performance benchmarks for MACP have been made more stringent from “Good” to “Very Good”.

The Commission has also proposed that annual increments not be granted in the case of those employees who are not able to meet the benchmark either for MACP or for a regular promotion in the first 20 years of their service.

No other changes in MACP recommended.

Military Service Pay (MSP): The Military Service Pay, which is a compensation for the various aspects of military service, will be admissible to the Defence forces personnel only. As before, Military Service Pay will be payable to all ranks up to and inclusive of Brigadiers and their equivalents. The current MSP per month and the revised rates recommended are as follows:

		Present	Proposed
i.	Service Officers	6,000	15,500
ii.	Nursing Officers	4,200	10,800
iii.	JCO/ORs	2,000	5,200
iv.	Non Combatants (Enrolled) in the Air Force	1,000	3,600

Short Service Commissioned Officers: Short Service Commissioned Officers will be allowed to exit the Armed Forces at any point in time between 7 and 10 years of service, with a terminal gratuity equivalent of 10.5 months of reckonable emoluments. They will further be entitled to a fully funded one year Executive Programme or a M.Tech. programme at a premier Institute.

Lateral Entry/Settlement: The Commission is recommending a revised formulation for lateral entry/resettlement of defence forces personnel which keeps in view the specific requirements of organization to which such personnel will be absorbed. For lateral entry into CAPFs an attractive severance package has been recommended.

Headquarters/Field Parity: Parity between field and headquarters staff recommended for similar functionaries e.g Assistants and Stenos.

Cadre Review: Systemic change in the process of Cadre Review for Group A officers recommended.

Allowances: The Commission has recommended abolishing 52 allowances altogether. Another 36 allowances have been abolished as separate identities, but subsumed either in an existing allowance or in newly proposed allowances. Allowances relating to Risk and Hardship will be governed by the proposed Risk and Hardship Matrix.

      Risk and Hardship Allowance: Allowances relating to Risk and Hardship will be governed by the newly proposed nine-cell Risk and Hardship Matrix, with one extra cell at the top, viz., RH-Max to include Siachen Allowance.

The current Siachen Allowance per month and the revised rates recommended are as follows:

		Present	Proposed
i.	Service Officers	21,000	31,500
iii.	JCO/ORs	14,000	21,000

This would be the ceiling for risk/hardship allowances and there would be no individual RHA with an amount higher than this allowance.

House Rent Allowance: Since the Basic Pay has been revised upwards, the Commission recommends that HRA be paid at the rate of 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the new Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively. The Commission also recommends that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27 percent, 18 percent and 9 percent respectively when DA crosses 50 percent, and further revised to 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent when DA crosses 100 percent.

In the case of PBORs of Defence, CAPFs and Indian Coast Guard compensation for housing is presently limited to the authorised married establishment hence many users are being deprived. The HRA coverage has now been expanded to cover all.

Any allowance not mentioned in the report shall cease to exist.

Emphasis has been placed on simplifying the process of claiming allowances.

Advances:

All non-interest bearing Advances have been abolished.

Regarding interest-bearing Advances, only Personal Computer Advance and House Building Advance (HBA) have been retained. HBA ceiling has been increased to 25 lakhs from the present 7.5 lakhs.

Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEGIS): The Rates of contribution as also the insurance coverage under the CGEGIS have remained unchanged for long. They have now been enhanced suitably. The following rates of CGEGIS are recommended:

	Present		Proposed
Level of Employee	Monthly Deduction  (₹)	Insurance Amount  (₹)	Monthly Deduction  (₹)	Insurance Amount  (₹)
10 and above	120	1,20,000	5000	50,00,000
6 to 9	60	60,000	2500	25,00,000
1 to 5	30	30,000	1500	15,00,000

Medical Facilities:

Introduction of a Health Insurance Scheme for Central Government employees and pensioners has been recommended.

Meanwhile, for the benefit of pensioners residing outside the CGHS areas, CGHS should empanel those hospitals which are already empanelled under CS (MA)/ECHS for catering to the medical requirement of these pensioners on a cashless basis.

  All postal pensioners should be covered under CGHS. All postal dispensaries should be merged with CGHS.

Pension: The Commission recommends a revised pension formulation for civil employees including CAPF personnel as well as for Defence personnel, who have retired before 01.01.2016. This formulation will bring about parity between past pensioners and current retirees for the same length of service in the pay scale at the time of retirement.

The past pensioners shall first be fixed in the Pay Matrix being recommended by the Commission on the basis of Pay Band and Grade Pay at which they retired, at the minimum of the corresponding level in the pay matrix.

This amount shall be raised to arrive at the notional pay of retirees, by adding number of increments he/she had earned in that level while in service at the rate of 3 percent.

In the case of defence forces personnel this amount will include Military Service Pay as admissible.

Fifty percent of the total amount so arrived at shall be the new pension.

An alternative calculation will be carried out, which will be a multiple of 2.57 times of the current basic pension.

The pensioner will get the higher of the two.

Gratuity: Enhancement in the ceiling of gratuity from the existing 10 lakh to 20 lakh. The ceiling on gratuity may be raised by 25 percent whenever DA rises by 50 percent.

Disability Pension for Armed Forces: The Commission is recommending reverting to a slab based system for disability element, instead of existing percentile based disability pension regime.

Ex-gratia Lump sum Compensation to Next of Kin: The Commission is recommending the revision of rates of lump sum compensation for next of kin (NOK) in case of death arising in various circumstances relating to performance of duties, to be applied uniformly for the defence forces personnel and civilians including CAPF personnel.

Martyr Status for CAPF Personnel: The Commission is of the view that in case of death in the line of duty, the force personnel of CAPFs should be accorded martyr status, at par with the defence forces personnel.

New Pension System: The Commission received many grievances relating to NPS. It has recommended a number of steps to improve the functioning of NPS. It has also recommended establishment of a strong grievance redressal mechanism.

Regulatory Bodies:  The Commission has recommended a consolidated pay package of 4,50,000 and 4,00,000 per month for Chairpersons and Members respectively of select Regulatory bodies. In case of retired government servants, their pension will not be deducted from their consolidated pay. The consolidated pay package will be raised by 25 percent as and when Dearness Allowance goes up by 50 percent. For Members of the remaining Regulatory bodies normal replacement pay has been recommended.

Performance Related Pay: The Commission has recommended introduction of the Performance Related Pay (PRP) for all categories of Central Government employees, based on quality Results Framework Documents, reformed Annual Performance Appraisal Reports and some other broad Guidelines. The Commission has also recommended that the PRP should subsume the existing Bonus schemes.

There are few recommendations of the Commission where there was no unanimity of view and these are as follows:

The Edge: An edge is presently accordeded to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) at three promotion stages from Senior Time Scale (STS), to the Junior Administrative Grade (JAG) and the NFSG. is recommended by the Chairman, to be extended to the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

Shri Vivek Rae, Member is of the view that financial edge is justified only for the IAS and IFS. Dr. Rathin Roy, Member is of the view that the financial edge accorded to the IAS and IFS should be removed.

Empanelment: The Chairman and Dr. Rathin Roy, Member, recommend that All India Service officers and Central Services Group A officers who have completed 17 years of service should be eligible for empanelment under the Central Staffing Scheme and there should not be “two year edge”, vis-à-vis the IAS. Shri Vivek Rae, Member, has not agreed with this view and has recommended review of the Central Staffing Scheme guidelines.

Non Functional Upgradation for Organised Group ‘A’ Services: The Chairman is of the view that NFU availed by all the organised Group `A’ Services should be allowed to continue and be extended to all officers in the CAPFs, Indian Coast Guard and the Defence forces. NFU should henceforth be based on the respective residency periods in the preceding substantive grade. Shri Vivek Rae, Member and Dr. Rathin Roy, Member, have favoured abolition of NFU at SAG and HAG level.

Superannuation: Chairman and Dr. Rathin Roy, Member, recommend the age of superannuation for all CAPF personnel should be 60 years uniformly. Shri Vivek Rae, Member, has not agreed with this recommendation and has endorsed the stand of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Download report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (7.19MB) 

6 IFS officers transferred

State Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, here this evening, ordered transfers and postings of six IFS officers with immediate effect.

Vinod Ranjan, Director, Forest Protection Force (FPF) has been transferred and posted as Principal Chief Conservator of Forests against an available vacancy.

Deepak Khanna, Chief Conservator of Forests, Eco Tourism has been transferred and posted as Director, State Forest Research Institute against an available vacancy. Ravi Kumar Kesar, Director, Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing, has been transferred and posted as Chief Conservator of Forests, Jammu vice S C Sharma.

Suresh Chugh, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Central) has been transferred and posted as Director, Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing vice Ravi Kumar Sharma.

Mohd Shafiq Khan, Director, Social Forestry Department, has been transferred and posted as Director, Forest Protection Force, J&K vice Vinod Ranjan. Hafizullah Sadiqui, Regional Wildlife Warden, Kashmir, has been transferred and posted as Director, Social Forestry Department, vice Mohd Shafiq Khan.

The Cabinet also declared the wind-storm of March 19 and 20 as Natural Calamity in the category of Cyclone in pursuance to the guidelines issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

In another decision, Cabinet gave nod to the creation of six posts of Lecturers in various disciplines for Super Specialty Hospitals of Jammu and Srinagar. It also approved the creation of two posts of Senior Sister Tutors with the corresponding reduction of two posts of Sister Tutors for AMT School and one post of Principal Tutor in the AMT School Srinagar.

According to the sources, Cabinet met only for a brief period as four Ministers including Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand were not in Jammu.

Deputy Chief Minister was with Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad in a public rally at Billawar while as Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather and Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir are on official visit to Italy. Minister for Tourism, Nawang Rigjin Jora was in Leh.

According to the sources, major shake-up in the bureaucracy will be affected either in next Cabinet meeting scheduled to be held on April 25 or in the first Cabinet meeting at Srinagar following reopening of Darbar there.

Workshop on Manuscriptology Paleography

Bhalla introduces bill to amend Transfer of Property Act

Force used to disperse protest march by employees

Dozen injured, 150 arrested in police action

Over a dozen government employees were injured in police action during a protest march here while over 150 others were arrested. Normal work in government offices was almost paralysed in view of the strike call given by Employees Joint Action  (EJAC) in support of its demand against non implementation  of an agreement signed by  its leaders with the state government.

After today’s tough government action, EJAC has announced to intensify its “struggle” and called for a strike again on May and  a strike and “gherao” of civil secretariat here on May 9.

This morning large number of  employees led by their leaders reached near Khalsa School and  took out a protest march  towards the divisional commissioner’s office to submit a memorandum.  The state government had deployed in strength the police and paramilitary forces.

The cops swung into action at Exhibition Crossing and Jehangir Chowk and resorted to lathi charge and used water cannon to disperse the protestors.

At least one dozen government employees got injured in the police action and dozens of them were detained. They included Khurshid Alam and  Abdul Qayoom Wani.

However, the agitated employees showed stiff resistance and crossed the temporary barricades erected by police. The employees were again intercepted by large contingent of police.

A number of employees managed to escape from the spot  and later resurfaced at Jehangir Chowk and Exhibition Crossing where they held protests. Cops again used water cannon and lathi charge to disperse them.

Later police blocked all roads for the employees and prevented them to assemble. Normal life came to stand still at Exhibition Crossing and Jehangir Chowk during the march and police action.

The shopskeepers were forced to close their shops after the colour water entered into their shops which was used by police against protesting employees to disperse them. The shopkeeper expressed displeasure over the excessive use of water cannons.

The employees’ leader, Abdul Qayoom Wani told Kashmir Times that EJAC leadership has condemned the police action  The EJAC president termed protest programme genuine since  the agreement was violated by government.

The employees leaders alleged that government’s delay in releasing the arrears have put their families in great trouble financially in this time of inflation.

.

The employees have been demanding 6th pay commission arrears in cash, regularization of daily wage workers, contractual workers, removal of the pay anomalies of the clerical staff, in cash payment to the retired employees and early settlement of their other arrears andg enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 years.

Another employees union, EJAC Kashmir senior leaders Shabir Ahmad Langu, Ishtiyaq Beg, Sheikh Majid, Imtiyaz Khan and Nazir Ahmad Qadri told media persons that today’s strike call was a flop show. They gave a separate hunger strike call on May 7 for the implementation of six pay commission recommendations.

Workshop on financial management held

Eco Survey of Jammu Kashmir

Anganwadi workers demonstrate

Anganwadi Workers Welfare Association held a protest demonstration in front of Divisional Commissioner’s Office here today against Government’s failure in settling their long pending demands.

The protestors demanded immediate release of arrears since April 2011, release of pending salary along with state share for the last so many months and in future the salary be paid month wise.

The protestors demanded fulfillment of other demands under ICDS scheme as the same has not been implemented in letter and spirit till date. They alleged that the genuine demands under ICDS scheme are being ignored.

The protestors alleged that Social Welfare Department has failed to issue promotion orders as per rules and seniority requirements.

They demanded that orders be issued without further delay. The Association also submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister through Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, highlighting their demands and seeking his immediate intervention in settling the same.

The Anganwadi workers from different districts of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Reasi, Rajouri and also from number of blocks participated in the agitational programme. The association president, Mrs Swaran Choudhary, Neelam Sharma, general secretary, Lakshman Ravinder Singh, senior leader BMS and Vijay Chandel, president BMS its general secretary, Harbans Choudhary and Subash Verma general secretary National Government Employees Federation were among others who addressed the demonstration.

They demanded that all the benefits be given to Anganwadi workers and helpers under ICDS scheme which included payment of TA and DA admissible for attending monthly meetings, issuance of stationery to centers, constitution of Grievances Committee at district and state level to solve problems of workers at district as well as state level, promotion of helpers as workers after completion of 10 years of service and introduction of pension scheme for Anganwardi workers and helpers.

Workshop on stress management held

ITI instructors demonstrate

Sixth Pay Commission arrears scam

Crores of rupees paid to undeserving employees

 In violation of the financial code with regard to the sixth Pay Commission arrears, several Government departments have released crores of rupees arrears for the adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees.

According to the Government order (No. 238-F of 2011 dated 30-09-2011), the sixth Pay Commission arrears were to be paid to the State Government employees in 5 equal installments in 5 years.

These arrears are being credited to the GP Fund of the employees and have no lock up period. However, for those employees who have retired upto 30-09-2011, the arrears will be paid in cash in 5 equal installments. In case of a death of a Government employee, his family is entitled to the cash payment of the arrears, as per the Government order.

According to the Government order, adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees were not entitled to these arrears but several departments including Technical Education, Health and Power Development Department (PDD) have released arrears in the favour of the employees in gross violation of financial code with regard to the sixth Pay Commission.

The first installments of arrears have been released to these employees in cash by the drawing and disbursing officers of these departments in league with concerned treasury officers. Sources said that the amount in cash was shared by the employees and drawing and disbursing officers of these departments' and treasury officers on 50-50 basis.

The treasuries passed these bills in the last week of the financial year and since these employees are not regular so it was paid in cash to them while it was credited to the GP Fund of the regular employees.

According to reports DDO's of Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) of the department of Technical Education of Srinagar, Ganderbal, Pattan, Pulwama, Rohama, Kupwara and Bandipora have paid arrears to their adhoc, consolidated and contractual employees.

The ITI Anantnag, Baramulla and Seer Hamadhan too have submitted the arrears' bills to the respective treasuries but the treasury officers have refused to release the money with the remarks that these employees were not regular and not entitled to the arrears.

The ITI Bemina and Shopian neither submitted their arrears' bills nor have paid the arrears to these employees and have told such employees working there that they were not entitled to arrears. A group of employees told Jk News that this is double standard on part of the department as some of the employees have been paid arrears in cash while others have been denied the arrears.

When contacted, Mohammad Asharaf Zargar, Accounts Officer Finance Department posted in Technical Education, told Jk News that as per the rules these employees are not entitled to the arrears. "It has not come to our notice", he added.

The other departments who have paid arrears to their employees are Health and PDD. This has also been done by the drawing and disbursing officers of these departments in league with the treasury officers.

One of the employee leaders while commenting on payment of arrears to the non-deserving employees in cash said that on one hand the Government is saying it is facing financial crunch and refused to pay the arrears in cash to its regular employees, on the other hand it is paying arrears in cash to non-deserving employees.

20 new tourist destinations for j&k

64 employees found absent during surprise inspection

Action being initiated under Civil Services Rules

Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, along with a team of officers today carried out surprise inspection of various Government offices and establishments for checking attendance of officialsand employees . More than 30 offices were checked in Sunderbani and Nowshera Tehsils and 64 employees were found absent and many irregularities noticed.

At Sub-District Hospital Sunderbani, Dr Ashok Bhagat, Dr Rehman Khan and paramedical staff including, Madan Lal, Koshal Kumar, Sham Lal, Sukh Ram, Rama Sharma, Daljeet Singh, Azim Mirza, Mohd Irshad and Jogesh Choudhary were found absent.

Horticulture Development Officer, Nowshera, Ashwini Sharma, Assistant Executive Engineer PDD Nowshera Anil Sharma, AEE PDD Sunderbani Anil Gautam, JE Bharat Bushan were also found absent.

Principal ITI, Sunderbani , Rajiv Mahajan, and other officials including Vinita Kapoor, Samit Sharma, Sanjay Kumar were not present on duty. Probodh Chander accountant, Manjeet Singh JSA, Bharat Sharma JA, Parveen Kumar JA, all officials of BDO Sunderbani office, Keshav Kumar Headmaster, Bimla Sharma SA and R K Bhat SA of Education Department; Vipin Kumar CDPO office Sunderbani, Bittu Ram senior assistant of Animal Husbandry Department were also found absent.

In Nowshera Tehsil, 34 officials and officers were found absent from duty during the surprise inspection. Paramjeeit Singh, Gurmeet Kour, Gurjit Kour and Swaran Singh of CDPO office, Romesh Chander, Baldev Raj, Som Parkash, Om Parkash and Shanti Kumar of Sericulture department; Kuldeep Kumar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Vijay Kumar of ExEn PHE Office; Dr M L Choudhary, Dr M S Shad and Iqbal Qasim of Sheep Husbandry Department, Ranjit Singh of Power Development Department; Sunil Kumar, Jagdev Raj, Hukum Singh, Tirath Singh, Romesh Chander, Geeta Rani of Sub-District Hospital Nowshera, Ranjit Singh, Ayodhya Kumar, Pawan Kumar and Ram Pega of PDD were absent from duty.

Child Development Project Officer, an Assistant Executive Engineer and a Medcial Officer were not present on station without any station leave sanctioned by or information to SDM.

Three employees of Sub-District Hospital Nowshera Mohd Sadiq, Razaq Ahmed and Nasir Ahmed had marked advanced attendance for next working day while as no attendance record was maintained in office of Sericulture Development Officer. At many offices unsanctioned leave applications were recovered.

The SDM has written to Deputy Commissioner, Rajouri and concerned Heads of Departments about unauthorised absence of officers and officials, non-maintenance of proper records and delinquent behavious. Action under Civil Services Rules is also being initiated against erring officers and officials of variour departments.

Tehsildar Nowshera Rafiq Ahmed, Tehsildar Sunderbani Devinder Pal, KAS Probationer Sanjeev Sharma and Naib Tehsildars accompanied the SDM during surprise inspection of offices.

Vocational training for Valley youth organised

A JCB Excavator training for unemployed youth of Budgam district of Kashmir is being organized under "Operation Sadbhavana" under the aegis of the CIF (K) Force and Chief Engineer Chinar Corps at their Engineering Unit located at Badgam from Feb 6 for four weeks.

The aim of this training is to make the unemployed youth of self-employed, by earning their livelihood through use of this training. In this humane effort, 21 unemployed youth of the district are being trained in JCB Excavators handling and operations. The candidates will also be awarded civil driving license through RTO for operating JCB excavator, which will help them to get suitable employment.

30000 visit Budha Amarnath Shrine
Holy Mace to reach Amarnath

Women Anganwari Workers not paid their Wages for 9 Months

Seems like it is not only the low rung public employees, thousands  of women Anganwari workers working in centres across valley have also not received their salaries for last nine months, with the concerned social welfare department citing the reason of inadequate budget for non-payment of the salaries.

Interestingly, the payment of salaries to the workers/ supervisors under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) is being funded by the central government. Under this scheme, all the social welfare departments were directed to increase the salaries of field workers operating in various centers from Rs 2100  per month to Rs 3600  per month with effect from April 2011.

However, in  Jammu and Kashmir, thousands of Anganwari workers were paid  the hiked salary for just the month of April , and have been working wage- less since then.

Protesting against the indifference of state authorities towards their concerns, Parveena, Head , Anganwari Helpers and Workers Association told Kashmir Times that they will go on an indefinite strike if the department further delays the payment of salaries.

Women Anganwari workers from various districts of the valley protested against the indifference of government towards their problems and threatened to go on an indefinite strike, if they are not paid their pending wages.

“We work all the year, for providing meals and nutrition to the children from poor families. However when it comes to paying us our due wages, this department always shies away from the same. We have even approached Minister for Social Welfare, Sakina Itoo. We have only got assurances from them. We cannot work any further as we have families to feed too,” Nuzhat, an Anganwari worker said.

The workers said that paying the pre-revised salaries to them would be sheer injustice as the workers elsewhere in the country are getting the salaries according to newly revised rates.

“Non-payment of dues has now become a routine with us. Usually, we are paid our wages after 2-3 months with the department citing the unavailability of funds as the reason every time. This certainly seems to be the mishandling of the affairs by the state management, because central agencies funding our salaries have announced payment of our hiked salaries on time,” Parveena told News Agency.

When contacted, director social welfare department, Hilal Ahmad Parray  said  the decks for payment of hiked salaries have been cleared and that as of now the department is ready to pay the salaries to its workers as per old schedule.

“We currently do not have sufficient funds for payment of revised salaries. As soon as we get the funds, we shall pay them as arrears to the workers. We have written to general administration department regarding that. Meanwhile, the payment of salaries as per old schedule is already being done,” he added.

3 day strike by Employees

Normal work in government offices was paralysed across the state as over four lakh government employees began three-day pen down strike.

Five employees leaders were arrested at Nowhatta when they were (taking stock of their strike in offices) evaluating the success of their strike by visiting different offices.

While in Jammu region too, the employees preferred to abstain from the work and staged demonstrations at various offices.

The state wide strike has been called by Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), an amalgam of various employees’ organizations.

Among other demands, the employees have been demanding release of 6th Pay Commission arrears in two installments. 

The essential services including emergency services in hospitals and examinations had been exempted from the strike. 

Khursheed Alam, leader of the government employees, said there was cent percent response to the strike call in all three regions, claiming that no employee turned up for work.

“There was a total response to the strike called by the JCC,” said Alam, who also heads a faction of employees union, EJAC (K).

He said that five employees leaders were arrested and condemned the government action as unwarranted.

“We were hopeful that the government would resolve issues facing the employees amicably as was evident during second round of talks with the chief secretary yesterday. However, the arrest of the employees is in total contravention to the atmosphere created during the meeting,” Khurshid said, adding, “The employees will not bow down under any coercion or power propelled measures.”

He reiterated that there would be complete pen down strike tomorrow as well. He hoped that “Srinagar (Secretariat) chalo” call on September 8 too would be a success. 

The JCC demands release of arrears in two installments at par with the central government employees and rejects the roadmap by the state government which offers to release the payments in several installments.

The apex body of employees also demands that the government should declare the clear-cut policy for regularization of daily rated workers who have completed 7-years of service after 1994. It also demands orders of regularization in favour of adhoc and contractual employees and enhancement of retirement age from present 58 to 60 years, removal of pay anomalies in different cadres.

Besides it demands that the government should settle the grievances of public sector employees, Rehbar-e-Taleem, Anganwari workers, regularization of promotion of difference cadres and also implement DA order in favour of PSU employees.      

So far government held two rounds of talks with the JCC but it failed to break the ice.

Apart from this, Cabinet-Sub Committee with Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs, Abdul Rahim Rather in chair, discussed various issues pertaining to the employees’ demands. 

JAMMU: In Jammu province also, the first day of the three day call of “Kaam Chodo Hartal”, given by the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), evoked an overwhelming response today as the work in almost all government offices remained paralyzed. The employees preferred to abstain from the work and staged demonstrations at various offices in the Jammu region.

As a result the government offices generally wore a deserted look.  Some offices, however, observed thin attendance.

In Jammu city, the main protest demonstration was held at GGM Science College, where a large number of employees staged protest in support of their long pending demands which have already been agreed upon by the government yet not implemented. The employees were raising slogans against the government for its delaying tactics and breach of the agreement. 

Apart from Science College, protest demonstrations were also held at Agriculture complex, Irrigation complex, Municipality complex, DC office. The nursing staff in the SMGS Hospital Shalamar and clerical staff in the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) also supported the call given by the JCC. However, the essential services like the health, power and water were exempted from the strike in larger interest of the public.

Senior JCC leader Ram Kumar Sharma maintained that the response of the employees to the call given by JCC was encouraging from Udhampur, Reasi, Kathua, Samba, Ramban, Kalakote, Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Bhaderwah and Kishtwar.

While talking to `Kashmir Times’, Sharma told, “We had a meeting with the Finance Minister AR Rather on September 3 in Srinagar. In the meeting, Rather admitted that there were some discrepancies in the road map given by the government and he asked us to air our view point on our issues. Minister’s response was - We want to resolve issues of the employees but it takes time. I can not take decision on my own. The decision is to be taken by the cabinet sub committee.” Sharma further told that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere but without any decision on the demands of the employees.

Senior JCC leader, however maintained that the Finance Minister had assured them that very soon he would call a meeting of the cabinet sub committee and the representatives of the employees would be invited. The JCC’s call was also supported by Lecturers’ Forum, SFC and some other organizations. The senior JCC leaders also stated that those who were opposing the strike at the behest of some agencies had now become quiet.