7th Pay unlikely soon for State Govt employees
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 04 2017: Even though it has been quite sometime employees of the State Government have been demanding salaries recommended by the 7th Central Pay Commission, the BJP-led coalition Government has made little preparation to fulfil the same demand.

As such, it would be too far-fetched to expect the 7th Pay soon .

The previous Government led by Chief Minister O Ibobi agreed in-principle to implement the 7th Pay Commission's recommendation at a Cabinet meeting held on November 26 last year.

The Cabinet meeting further decided to form a special committee headed by the Chief Secretary to look into the matter .

In accordance with the Cabinet decision, a Fitment Committee headed by the Chief Secretary as Chairman was constituted.

The Finance Commissioner was the member secretary and other members of the committee were DP Commissioner or a representative and Law Secretary or a representative .

After the Congress Government was toppled, there are BJP-led Governments both at the State and the Centre.

But there is no sign of any improvement in the State's financial condition nor is there any likelihood of implementing the recommendation of 7th Central Pay Commission any time soon, sources informed .

Notably, implementation of the 7th Pay was one of the key points promised and highlighted in the BJP's vision document published before the last Assembly election.

Yet, the Government has not made any preparation to fulfil the same promise .

Whereas it is generally accepted that the State has limited resources, the incumbent Government has not yet made any move to seek additional fund from the Centre which would be required for implementation of the 7th Pay Commission's recommendation .

Implementation of the 7th Pay with regard to the 80,000 employees of the State Government would require additional Rs 600/700 crore annually .

The State Government is already laden with the extra burden of Rs 400/500 crore for paying salaries to employees recruited and regularised by the previous Government.

This was stated by Chief Minister N Biren while delivering his speech at the Patriots' Day observation on August 13 .

On the other hand, DA/DR given to employees, pensioners and family pensioners of the State Government was hiked from 119 per cent to 125 per cent from June 1 this year.

The DA/DR hike by one dose (6 per cent) implies extra expenditure of Rs 12 crore.

Given the State's limited resources, there is no likelihood of implementing the recommendation of 7th Pay Commission any time soon notwithstanding any amount of pressure exerted by employees until and unless the State Government seeks additional fund from the Centre, the sources added.

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