In all, the strength of Central Government employees throughout the country is to the tune of one crore personnel. Everybody is talking about the highlights of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations. Actually, the recommendations of the Pay Commission directly concern the Central Government employees but it practically impacts the state employees also. Though principally, federating states have their own discretion to follow the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission yet the common practice is that States usually follow the suite. The only difference is in time, meaning when the State government finds time feasible to implement revised pay scales, allowances and other related perks. The practice with our State has been to accept the recommendations of the Pay Commission at its proper time and in parts if not in full in one go. It depends on availability of funds and how expeditiously the bureaucracy takes up the matter.
Recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission do not take into account only the enhanced pay scales, allowances and other financial matter, but also the service conditions, performance, delivery and the assessment which become the criterion for promotion to higher cadres etc. For example, the 7th Pay Commission has recommended that Non-performing Central Government employees will not get annual increment if their performance is not up to the mark. The benchmark for performance appraisal for promotion and financial upgrading has been enhanced to “very good” from “good” level, the Finance Ministry said in an order notifying implementation of Seventh Central Pay Commission’s recommendations. This is called the Modified Assured Career Progression (MACP) scheme and it will continue to be administered at 10, 20 and 30 years of service as before. Actually it is the recommendation of the Pay Panel. The recommendation of withholding of annual increments in the case of those employees who are not able to meet the benchmark either for MACP or a regular promotion within the first 20 years of their service has been accepted by the Finance Minister.
The crux of these recommendations and the conditionality imposed along with the announcement of 7th Pay Commission is to improve the working culture in government departments and monitoring the dedication of the functionaries and their output. While the government employees stake claim for enhanced salaries and allowances on the plea that market prices are sky rocketing, the Government would not want to close its eyes to the need of efficient and productive output as part of good governance.
We are happy to note that the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission are very realistic and people friendly. The recommendations, which will cost the exchequer annually Rs 1.02 lakh crore, were notified in a gazette of the Central Secretariat. The minimum pay in Central Government with effect from January 1, 2016 will now be Rs 18,000 per month, up from Rs 7,000 per month. At the highest level of Cabinet Secretary, the salary would go up from Rs 90,000 a month to Rs 2.5 lakh. We will not go into the details of the recommendations as these have been adequately notified in the press and in the gazette. However, while this debate is opened, we would like to know what the State government will be intending to do with these recommendations in respect of its employees. For the State of Jammu and Kashmir, the first stage for implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendations will be availability of funds. Nevertheless, the State government shall have to find ways and means for raising funds partly from its own sources and partly from financial support from the Centre.
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