Services representatives brief empowered panel on deviations - THE HINDU

Military representatives met the Joint Secretaries in the Empowered Committee on the 7th pay commission on Tuesday and discussed the deviations that have arisen on pay recommendations sent from the Defence Ministry.

Sources told The Hindu that this meeting of the three service representatives in the Pay Commission cells with the two JS’s was sought after a meeting requested by the service chiefs with the Cabinet Secretary did not materialise. Even this meeting was originally scheduled last week but was postponed, they added.

The officials presented the case of the armed forces on the pay commission recommendations as was done in earlier cases. However there was no firm response from the JS’s concerned.

“The Joint Secretaries expressed surprise at the services not being aware of the proposals forwarded by Defence Ministry on their behalf,” one official with knowledge of the matter said.

As reported by The Hindu on Monday, there is discontentment among the military top brass over the issue despite Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar responding positively to presentations by the three service chiefs.

The proposals include a common pay matrix for civilians and the military, grant of notional Non Functional Upgrade for the forces to restore parity with civilian counterparts, granting higher rate of the Military Service Pay (MSP) for Junior Commissioned Officers and granting the MSP for Major General’s and above.

“Nothing has changed. Governments come and go, political class do lip service but the bureaucracy prevails in undermining the status of the armed forces after every pay commission,” said a senior officer. It is high time that political class exerts its authority to not let down the morale of the country.

The committee is only looking into the issues of salaries, while the decision on allowances which has greater discrepancies will be looked at separately later.