FIXATION OF BASIC PAY – ANOMALIES
OF THE PAST CENTRAL PAY COMMISSIONS METED OUT TO FAUJIs
We have suffered in our
careers when we found our junior by three years also got the same basic
pay in Jan 1986 when the recommendations of the 4th CPC were implemented by the Govt. This was due to bunching and has amounted to losing three years of seniority as if it has been imposed as
punishment by a Summary Court Martial. The 3rd CPC topped the list by being a General Court
Martial (GCM), by reducing the pension of JCOs and ORs from 70% to 50% in one stroke and by second stroke of 33 year rule, further reduced the pension from 50% to 37.8% of JCOs and ORs.
The bunching of Basic pay in fixation happens because
of the restricted so called Integrated Pay Scale which we never understood. During 4th CPC the integrated pay scale was restricted to Rs 2,300 - 100
- 3,900 - 150 - 5,100. This had resulted in many senior Cols not getting even
Re 1 benefit from 3rd CPC to 4th CPC. since during the 3rd CPC paeriod they had already reached the basic pay close to Rs 5,100. This anomaly should also had been taken up by our
Service HQs right upto the hon'ble PM of the day. But they did not and lumped it. Result has been that we
all have been suffering since 3rd CPC. JCOs and ORs suffered the most, not very sure
if the civilians too were subjected to such like integrated pay scale.
When the juniors by three
years got the same basic pay on fixation it amounted to a loss of three years of seniority meted out by the CPC and not by a court marital. No one cared for
junior officers when pay scales of Army Cdrs and Service Chief, a negligible number, were very well taken
care by equating their basic pay with those of Secretaries to Govt and Cabinet Secretary respectively.
The job of so called Army Pay
Commission cell is to make a chart showing discrimination done to the Armed Forces
vis -a - vis the Civilians even considering the so called equivalence between Armed
Forces personnel and Civilians agreed upon in 3rd CPC time. They might have
done so but we continued to suffer in successive pay commissions, due to inaction by the Service HQs, and the civilians who were junior to us in pay and perks started getting more pay
and perks after every pay commission. We keep harping that the Armed (Harmed) Forces are been downgraded by the Govt where as
we should be otherwise crying that Civilians have been upgraded.
Our Service HQs never
pointed out to the hon'ble Rakhsha Mantri or the Prime Minister the proliferation of
senior ranks in civil? There used to be just one IG Police in any State police even in 1980s who was equivalent but junior to a Brigadier. But as of today thaer are dozens of DGPs
who draw pay of an Army Cdr. We just blame civilians but we should blame our
Service HQs and Senior Officers who probably won't like to see juniors wearing the same rank as them.
If one Secretary to Govt of
India has a dozen Secretaries under him drawing same pay & perks why cannot
Army Cdr have all his 10 PSOs (Nav Ratnas) of the same rank as Army Cdr and drawing pay and
perks of Army Cdr. Similarly all the Nav Ratnas in a Corps HQ could be Maj Gens.
Look at the ingenuity of
Civilians. They hit upon NFFU when Govt of India cannot create more posts of
higher ranks. One may be in lower rank (Grade) but would draw pay of higher rank
because there is no vacancy until the seniors retire. There is nothing wrong in this but the Serviced refused to accept since juniors are only lesser mortals for them. Some called it unethical but what is that which is wrong in NFFU. That is
the reason two out of the three memebrs in the 7th CPC have recommended continuation of NFFU.
We
cannot promote every Sepoy to a JCO before he retires. But if on grant of NFFU he gets the salary of a Nb Sub and later pension for life, is it not a great service we will do to our men? The NFFU is the
only solution to get better pay packet for the Harmed Forces due to high percentage of Stagnation, that the so called Selection Boards are mere Rejection Boards and the guidelines to them reiterate the criteria for rejection only.
We faujis can surely think of such innovative ideas for us as well, only if Seniors listen and depart from the Syndromes of ACRs and measuring the waist lines of officers. We need to keep our eys open and feel the environment. We keep crying down-gradation
of ranks when officer with 13 years of service becomes a Lt Col where as in IAS, he becomes a DM
or District Collector and draws more salary than a Colonel with just 10 years' of service including one year at LBSNAA Mussorie,.
Malaise is therefore within us. We can
not accept our junior getting same ranks and pays. They reiterate same old
rono dhona story in from pf the captive audience of junior officers " When I was 2 Lt I used to
..........blah, blha........".
Now let us get back to our main subject the 5th pay
commission. There have been some improvements w.e.f Jan 1996. The
basic pay fixed as on Jan 1996 was based on the basic pay, Rank pay, DA, IRI, IRII
and fitment of 40% drawn during 4th CPC. So those who suffered in 4th
CPC also continued to suffer even in 5th CPC. But suffering caused was less than
what was in 4th CPC and 3rd CPC.
Even in 5th CPC the pay scale of a brig was Rs 16700-450-18050
i.e. with three increments he reached the top of the scale and then stagnated
and was given one stagnation increment every two years, what a ploy. This was also because
of the very restricted pay scale placed infront of a Brigadier, wonder if the Fauji Hierarchy ever understood this at that time.
Today every one wants to knock at the doors of the Courts. Rightly so since what ever has come in Rank Pay and pension as per fitment table etc for entire 6CPC has been granted by the courts of Law. It must be noted that the courts are are not
interested to know how and how much are the pay scale fixed being is a policy decision
of the Govt of India which cannot be questioned. The Courts will come in only
when there is any illegality or infirmity or discrimination in implementing
that policy resulting into denial to serving and retired personnel a particular benefit
granted by Govt of India. Any judgment of any court of law is based on the same analogy. The courts never
question decision of the cabinet. They only go into non implementation or wrong
implementation of cabinet decision. This is what happened in 6th CPC when pensions
are based on MINIMUM OF PAY BAND rather than MIN OF THE PAY IN PAY BAND. which had been set right.
7th CPC has
done little beetter on Scales of Pay, where in the scale is open ended with increments for every
year of service thereby taking care of those to an extent who do not get promoted.
| *********************************************** YOUR COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THIS POST Dear Veterans, 1. We at Signals-Family Portal are ordinary people in various matters concerning serving and Retired Govt Personnel, as such, do heavily bank upon inputs from our readers. Kindly do add, comment and give your observations on this or any other post aimed at improving the posted contents for the benefit of the veterans community. 2. Kindly post these under the comments, we will much appreciate your contribution in this regard. 3. In order to avoid spam and unwarranted or mischievous posts, only such entries will get published where the Person has given his RANK, NAME @ EMAIL ID at the end of his/her text. 4. We will do our best to post our response as quickly as possible after getting the facts vetted from offrs, JCOs and men who are more knowledgeable on particular subject. With best wishes Sincerely yours, Brig Narinder Dhand (Veteran) ******************************************** |
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