Defence services to get interim relief

NEW DELHI, October 14, 2016

To assuage the feelings of defence personnel over the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations ahead of Deepavali, the Union government has approved a one-time interim relief.

The Centre referred the issue of disability pension to an anomaly committee. A separate committee will address the five concerns of the services, while allowances and other issues will be looked into by specific committees.

For the military, the commission has recommended scrapping a percentage-based system and reverting to the slab system. The anomaly committee will look into the controversial recommendation.

The three services have not issued special instructions on the recommendations despite the government’s request, and the salaries of military personnel, unlike civilian employees, have been unrevised.

The Defence Ministry indicated early this week that an ad hoc arrears of 10 per cent of the pay from January 1 would be paid. The basic pay, military service pay, non-practice allowance and dearness allowance at the rate of 125 per cent would be added for the calculation.

Waiting for rectification

The three service chiefs had asked the Govt to keep the pay revision “in abeyance” till certain anomalies were corrected. However, Mr. Parrikar had asked the services to implement the notification in the present form and implement the changes once they were approved. The services have raised five major concerns in the recommendations, which include non-functional upgrade, the military service pay, a common pay matrix, reduced staggering at lower levels and disability allowance.

(SOURCE-The Hindu)