No plans of separate pay commission for Himachal: Govt to HC

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice D D Sud had,in December last year,expressed surprise that the state has no pay commission of its own and sent a notice to the government seeking its stand on the issue. The court had even directed the government to appraise it,on the issue,within three months.

“It’s true that Punjab pattern cannot be implemented as it is but at the same time separate pay commission at this stage is not necessary when the previous pay panel recommendations have been applied,” Sandhu said before adding that “ the court orders would be taken into consideration for future revisions”.

The chief secretary in her affidavit,has also stated that it was not necessary that every state should have its own Pay Commission and pointed out that 20 states were following the Central Pay Commission,whereas Himachal was following the Punjab one.

According to state budget estimates for 2012-13,of the total expenditure of Rs 20,243.92 crore,the amount spent on salaries and pensions will be Rs 9,069.81 crore. This means about 45 per cent of the total budget is meant for just 260,000 employees and 117,000 pensioners.