Parrikar assures on pay commission but Forces opt to wait

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 14

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday assured the armed forces that he will take up the anomalies of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) at the highest level as he fully understands the matter. Subsequently, the services have expressed ‘satisfaction’ but are still waiting and watching.

Till the evening, it was status quo as far as the decision to stop the implementation of the increased salary and emoluments under the 7th CPC is concerned, sources said. The implementation had been stopped on September 9 over ‘unresolved anomalies’ which had surfaced in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) notification issued on September 6.

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In the afternoon, the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha issued a statement saying, “The Raksha Mantri (Parrikar) is seized of all the issues and has assured to resolve them at the earliest. The Services are satisfied with the response.”

The 7th pay commission anomalies were discussed between the Ministry of Defence and the forces for the second time in three days on today. Parrikar had met with Raha, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba and the Adjutant General of the Army as the Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag is away.

Parrikar conveyed to forces that questioning the notification was questioning the decision of the government and a resolution of anomalies will be on top priority.

The government holds an opinion that amending a notification will take weeks and needs approvals. Meanwhile, Parrikar has asked the forces to implement the CPC and wait for the resolution of four key pending demands.

On September 12, Parrikar had asked the forces to implement the pay commission and grievances, if any, can be taken up later.

The MoD had notified the new pay commission on September 6 and the CoSC had met on September 7 which decided to withhold the CPC pending ‘resolution of anomalies’.

On September 9, the three services issues letters to their formations saying they have asked the government to hold ‘in abeyance’ the implementation of the CPC in view of the ‘unresolved anomalies’.

The forces believe anomalies lower the status and pay parity of forces vis-à-vis their counterparts in the police and civilian administration.

The MoD had, in the past, conveyed to an empowered committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary that the status, pay and allowances of the armed forces be kept above all other “fighting” arms of the government. Parrikar had also taken up the case that issues of status, pay and allowances for the forces have to be paramount.