Centre to set up separate pay commission for armed forces

According to MoD official, , ?The government has agreed that in future, pay revision of the armed forces should be de-linked from that of civilians. A separate board or commission will be set up for pay revision of the armed forces.? In a communication to the ministry of defence, the PMO also granted the demand for placing 12,000 odd Lieutenant Colonels under equivalence in Navy and Air Force in the pay band four of the sixth central pay commission.

While a formal notification is still awaited, the armed forces have greeted the decision with uncertainty.

?The Service headquarters are yet to receive any formal information of the decision. Moreover, the terms ?combat? and ?ready-to-combat? have yet to be defined,? said a senior army officer, talking on grounds of anonymity.

However, the PMO, which considered the recommendations of the ministerial committee headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, said that those lieutenant colonels holding combat or ready-to-combat jobs in their parent service may be placed in pay band four (Rs.37,400-67,000) – one step higher than the Sixth Pay Commission had recommended in its report submitted last year.

?Lieutenant colonels on deputation will get the scale when they return to their parent service,? the ministry official said. What is still not clear is ?Lieutenant-colonels are being posted to field and peace areas on a rotation basis. So it is not clear whether the personnel posted in peace areas will receive the benefits or not,? the officer added. Also, one of the demands accepted by the PMO concerned the jawans, for whom the government would restore the 70% pensionary weightage. Till the government implements the sixth pay commission?s recommendations for allowing retired armed forces personnel?s lateral entry into paramilitary and central police forces, the 70% weightage would continue.

A decision has also been taken to set up a high-powered committee to resolve issues relating to command and control functions and the status of the armed forces vis-?-vis the paramilitary and civilian government employees.

While two ?core issues? have been accepted by the government including upgrading of the lieutenant-colonels to a higher pay band and enhancing of pension to personnel below officer rank (PBOR), two other issues including officers of the rank of lieutenant-general and equivalent in the Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) Plus category that has been created in all government departments except the armed forces, still need to be addressed. The higher pay band means that the personnel will get an additional Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000.

The decisions are contained in a letter sent from the PMO to the cabinet secretariat. MoD officials observed that the PMO?s communication was a fiat to the armed forces even though the finer details of implementing them would have to be worked out in concert with the services headquarters.