Punjab’s pay push

COMETH the elections, cometh the revised pay scales. With barely three months to go for the Lok Sabha polls, the cash-strapped Punjab Government has decided to bite the bullet and finally implement the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. This is a last-ditch attempt to win over lakhs of disgruntled government employees, who have been holding protests in recent months in support of their demands, primarily a salary hike and payment of dearness allowance arrears.

The Commission was set up in February 2016 when the Akali-BJP alliance was in charge, but things moved at a snail’s pace, apparently because the government, facing strong anti-incumbency, already knew that it was on its way out. The change of guard in the state further delayed the proceedings. Former Chief Secretary RS Mann, who had been appointed chairman of the pay panel during the SAD rule, quit shortly after the Congress came to power. His successor, Jai Singh Gill, has had his hands full over the past year and a half, receiving hundreds of representations from employees’ unions. It has been a tightrope walk for him as the government hardly has any financial elbow room.

Accounting for about half of its total earnings, the state’s annual salary and pension bill is a major drain on the exchequer. Punjab’s government employees, particularly those who have spent several years in service, are relatively well paid compared to their counterparts in other states, but the picture is far from rosy for the fresh recruits. The latter find themselves in a ‘take it or leave it’ situation. The ruling party needs to do a lot to make sarkari naukri alluring for these young employees. The protracted unrest among government teachers, who are seeking regularisation of services at decent salaries, shows that the powers that be have made a mess of things. Punjab also has plenty of catching up to do with neighbour Haryana, which had taken the lead last year in implementing recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.