IAF chief objects to Pay panel

New Delhi, August 27: Adding another note to the controversy over the pay commission for the armed forces, Air Chief Marshal FH Major has shot off a letter protesting an ‘anomaly’ that puts officers of the rank of Lt Col in a pay band that is lower than their civilian counterparts.

The letter, which is bound to create controversy as it comes after the pay scales were finalised by the Cabinet on August 14, was sent to Admiral Sureesh Mehta, the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee on Monday. The letter requested Admiral Mehta to take up the issue with the Defence Minister.

The main contention is that after the revised scales are implemented, officers of the rank of Lt Col in all three services would be put in a lower salary slab than civilians and Para Military officers of equivalent rank.

“The finance ministry, working on the implementation of the sixth pay commission proposals, is introducing yet another anomaly by lowering the extant of parities of officers of the armed forces, of the Lt. Col. (and equivalent) by retaining them in pay band-3, while raising similarly placed civilian and paramilitary officers to pay band-4,” the letter says.

Major has said that the new scales being planned by the finance minister would end up disturbing the parity between armed forces and para military forces by putting the three services at a lower level. “Civilian officers who were in a lower pay bracket and were hitherto drawing lesser pay as compared to Lt Col and equivalent of the armed forces, would now draw a higher basic salary in the running pay band,” the letter says.

Contending that the anamoly would lead to demoralisation of the armed forces, Major has urged Mehta to take up the issue with the Defence Minister. “This anomaly would lead to demoralisation of the armed forces as a whole, as it alters extant and established relativities especially amongst officers in the cutting edge of fighting formations,” Major points out in the letter.

The letter comes weeks after the final pay panel was cleared by the cabinet on the recommendations of a committee of secretaries. The cabinet had modified the pay panel recommendations to give the armed forces a better deal by doubling the Military Service Pay for jawans to Rs 2,000 and moving Colonels and Brigadiers to a higher pay band. The three chiefs have publicly expressed their disappointment over the recommendations on several occasions

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.

Mail this page