Friday, November 20, 2015

7th Pay Commission gives a fractured verdict on pay parity, IAS edge; proposes salary up to Rs 2.5 lakh per month

IF THE majority view of the 7th Central Pay Commission report submitted to the Central Government on Thursday evening is accepted, the monopoly of the IAS officers at the positions of the joint secretary and the above will end. In a fractured recommendation where one member of the commission Vivek Rae (former petroleum secretary) gave a dissenting note, chairman of the commission Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur and another member and economist Rathin Roy said that…
all officers of All India Services and Central Group `A’ Services participating in the Central Staffing Scheme who have put in 17 years of service will be eligible to apply for empanelment. They even proposed the screening process for empanelment should be carried out by a separate body, ideally consisting of the following:
a. Chairman, UPSC or, in his absence a Member nominated by him;
b. Two members at the Secretary level, one from the IAS and one from one of the other Central Services;
c. At least two subject experts
Chairman Mathur in a hard-hitting note says the following: “The main cause for resentment among services is that over a period of time IAS has arrogated to itself all power of governance and relegated all other services to secondary position. All posts covering majority of domains are today manned by IAS, be it a technical or administrative which is the main cause of grievance. It is time that government take a call that subject domain should be the criteria to man the posts and not a generalist. If fair and equitable treatment is not given to all Services, then the gap between IAS and other services will widen and it may lead to a chaotic situation and it will not be good for the governance and country.”
Currently, 73 out of 91 secretaries are IAS officers whereas as many as 249 out of 391 joint secretaries are IAS (As on September 2015).
But member Rae has written a dissenting note saying he does not agree with the observations and recommendations regarding empanelment and posting under the Central Staffing Scheme.
In fact, lack of consensus among the chairman and two members regarding pay parity and the edge that the IAS enjoys, has been the key takeaway of the 7th Central Pay Commission report.
On pay revision, however, there has been no dissenting voice at all, as the pay commission recommended the starting salary of IAS and Group “A” services officers at Rs 56,100 per month where for joint secretary, the proposed salary starts at Rs 1.82 lakh, for secretary it has been fixed at Rs 2.25 lakh and for cabinet secretary at Rs 2.5 lakh per month. These figures don’t include allowances.
On the “edge” presently accorded to IAS (also IFS) at three grades mainly Senior Time Scale, Junior Administrative Grade and Selection Grade, chairman of the commission has recommended that the edge should also be extended to IPS and Indian Forest Service officers as well. Member Dr Rathin Roy has gone a step further saying that the financial edge accorded to the IAS should be removed altogether. But member Rae has written in a dissent note that the financial edge for IAS and IFS is fully justified and must be retained. Rae writes his note: “There is no doubt that the IPS, IFoS and other civil services are manned by highly competent, public spirited and well-motivated individuals. That, however, does not mean that they should be brought on par with the IAS in terms of the financial edge or anything else. The undersigned, therefore, does not agree with the proposal of Chairman, Seventh CPC in para 7.2.19 to provide two advance increments to IPS and IFoS on par with IAS till NFSG level, since the recommendation is based on untenable notions of parity…”

11 comments:

  1. you have ignored the most convincing view of Vivek Rai on importance of IAS to manning higher positions.The other two members are not paper tigers with no real understanding of real administration.

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  2. As reportrd in page 183 of 7CPC, IAS has complete hegemony over secretary and addl secretary posts. This should end and other services should also be given fair chances as given in joint sec posts.

    However issues pointed by Vivek Rae in Section7.2.20 of 7CPC (page 151 onwards) in support of IAS/IFS also deserves serious attention. Those cannot be ignored just to bring parity.

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  3. Sri Vivek Rae has acted as a representatative of IAS association and not as a person with open mind. He has shown really how low an IAS can stoop in interest of his fellow servicemen. Any pay commission should consist only of experts so that they can give unbiased opinion.The only balanced views are given by Sri Rathin Roy, economist. If govt is serious about a modern structure, the views of the only expert in the panel should be accepted. Otherwise it is a mediocre report for perpetuating the hegemony of the generalist IAS.

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  4. Instead of lengthy dissent notes, should have focused on Performance vs Pay, how come such outstanding people could not figure out what should be performance measure and suitable incentives to drive 50 lakh employees to work better and deliver results.

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  5. While appointing the Members of Pay Commission the basic principles of natural justice were ignored. Nobody can be a judge in his own case. But the representative of IAS has thoroughly influenced the fellow members in giving edge to the IAS. He has given notes in favour of IAS and, dissent notes wherever he couldn't influence the Members. Utter non sense.When IFS officer can become Foreign Secretary, why can't an IRS become Revenue Secretary. One who has never worked in tax departments suddenly comes up and says he is the coordinator. Utter non sense. The IAS type does not exist anywhere in the world. So such non existence is glamorously termed as 'Unique Service' or 'Heaven borne Service' etc. The IAS justifies higher pay or better treatment only considering just the 2 year stint of an IAS as DM/DC/Collector of his 30-35 years tenure. It is for everyone to see why this edge is perpetrated for an IAS throughout his career by quoting the DM tenure. DM tenure is not hardship but a privilege. In fact the DM post is a colonial hangover of the British period when no local politician was trusted. The DM used to rule over the politicians and local ministers in order to serve the British masters. The DM used to perform the functions of the Minsiters, etc. But now we have our own self rule and Independent India. Then isn't the post of DM anarchic in the entire scheme of governance? When will all our politicians realise that the credit for governance in districts is being snatched away by the IAS, which actually is the domain of the politicians?

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    1. FYI its not just 2 years, almost 15 years...

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  6. Sir, Mr.Vivek Rai has commented that the Pay Parity should be removed altogether. I ask why? The IAS have always been protecting their IAS pay Rules 1954. They dare not allow anyone come near them. See the 6th CPC Recommendadtions has been twisted to such an extent that Pay Parity to Org Grp A, which should have been given with 2 years gap had been streched by DoPT IAS Babus to effectively 3 years, by adding a "Batch" concept. We in Org Grp Servc get promotions only once in a blue moon. Several of my Colleagues who joined in JTS retired in STS after 35 years of service. The Pay Parity was the only hope which gives us at least JAG scale during retirement. To get SAG scale, again the bureaucratic babus introduced the eligibility criteria (residency period), ie one should be JAG regular for 1 year to get SAG PP. Again the date of eligibility and admissibility is stretched. DPCs for PP is conducted by Ministry level. Again Secretaries of Ministries dont conduct timely DPCs. If 1 DPC is conducted in a grade, the next one is after 6 months!!!. Hence there is an enormous delay, introduced by Bureaucrats, who always twist the rules. I was eligible & admissible for PP to DS level (GP7600) wef June 2011. But DPC was held in Aug 2014, despite several representation!!!! See the Bureaucrat delay involved of 4 years. Who is responsible for this enormous delay? The rule makers only, ie IAS. If this is the state of affairs of Senior STS officers, what will be the state of our Country? Hence the IAS monopoly should ultimately end. You IAS Babus have no choice at all. Time will tell soon. On what grounds can Mr. Rae tells in 7 cpc report that PP should be removed totally and those accorded earlier be reverted back? Is is out of his mind ? Didnt ever think that IAS babus stoops to such low levels. No wonder our country is in shambles, by such perverted thinking.

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  7. India can no longer afford it's government. Let's fire all the govt. employees and get the British back.

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  8. This is sour grapes. We were allotted IAS in UPSC exam. We are meant to rule India. Politicians will divide India. Only we IAS can keep country intact. We are the real leaders in India. We will rule for atleast another 1000 years. Other service officers should accept their fate and work under us. Please don't demand anything. We will head the committees considering and implementing the 7CPC recommendations. We are everywhere - in DoPT, Min. of Finance, Cabinet Secretariat, CoS, ACC. We will decide who gets what. Cabinet will accept what we recommend. So guys chill. Let us rule. Only we will rule.

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  9. India is the only country where the Verna system exists in the Civil Services .
    The artificial disparity has been allowed to perpetuate for reasons manufactured by successive CPCs.
    No wonder, the 7th CPC failed to address the concerns of " lesser" Services in the hierarchy.

    A K Saxena (A retd civil servant)
    http://www.aksaxena.co.in

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  10. pay commission is formed after every 10 years and a meagre hike in salary shows that Govt.' s anti govt employee attitude.

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