Separate Pay Commission For Armed Forces

Separate pay commission for armed forces 1 Jan 2009, 1511 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: In a New Year gift to its armed forces, the government has decided to set up a separate pay commission for defence personnel and to place the 12,000-odd lieutenant colonels and their equivalents in Navy and Air Force in higher pay band. ( Watch ) The government also agreed to restore 70 per cent pensionary weightage for jawans on retirement but was silent on the demands for placing the lieutenant generals in the higher administrative grade plus pay scales and bringing grade pay of officers from captains to brigadiers on par with their civilian counterparts. In a communication to the defence ministry, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that the proposed armed forces pay commission would be de-linked from the civilian central pay commission as had been done earlier. It also decided to place the 12,000-odd lieutenant colonels in the Army and their equivalents in the Navy and Air Force in the pay band-4 under the Sixth Central Pay Commission that was implemented in September 2008. In effect, the government would form an armed forces pay commission as and when it establishes the seventh central pay commission for the civilian and paramilitary staff. The PMO, which considered the recommendations of the ministerial committee headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, said the pay band-4 status with a grade pay of Rs 8000 would be accorded to lieutenant colonels, who performed a combat role or were ready for combat. Those lieutenant colonels on deputation to other services would receive the pay band-4 status only when they return to their parent service. The higher pay band means that the personnel will get an additional Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000. The 70 per cent pensionary weightage would continue till the government implements the sixth pay commission's recommendation allowing retired armed forces personnel lateral entry into paramilitary and central police forces. Conceding another demand, the government said a high powered committee would be set up to review the "command and control functions, and the status" of the armed forces vis-a-vis that of their civilian and paramilitary counterparts. Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta had time and again stressed that the four "anomalies" raised by the defence personnel after a cabinet decision in August to implement the Sixth Pay Commission were "not about money, but about status and command and control" issues. Defence ministry officials said the PMO's communication was a fiat to the armed forces even though the nitty-gritty of implementing them would have to be worked out in concert with the services headquarters. After the cabinet decided to implement the sixth pay commission from September, the services chiefs had urged a political decision on the issues of parity raised by them. At one point, the services headquarters had, in an unprecedented move, refused to implement the cabinet decision. Consequently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up the Mukherjee committee, which had defence minister A K Antony and home minister P Chidambaram as members. The committee submitted its report to the Prime Minister in mid-December.

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