The
Sixth Pay Commission has recommended to increase the salaries
of the Central government staff by 40 per cent. This hike
would benefit more than 40 lakh employees. Justice, BN Shrikrishna
presented his report to the Finance Minister, P Chidambaram
on Monday. It has been recommended to implement the report
from January 1, 2006. According to amended wages, payscale
of cabinet secretary would be Rs 90,000 and payscale of secretary
has been fixed at Rs 80,000. After adding the allowances the
payscales seems to be crossing the Rs 1 lakh mark. Minimum
entry level payscale would be Rs 6,600 per month. In similar
manner the report recommends large scale increase in the allowances
to staff. All this hike in salary would definitely increase
the burden on the exchequer. The DA should be merged with
basic pay. Along with this, beginning of DA should start from
zero. The Commission has recommended for cycle allowance,
washing allowance, cash handling allowance, night service
allowance to be doubled. Employees appointed in B1, B2 class
cities would get 20 per cent House Rent Allowance and in remaining
cities and towns they would be given HRA according to 10 per
cent rate. Though, the Commission has recommended to give
better facilities to small income group employees but it is
not sufficient. Their facilities should be increased further.
The Commission did not think it necessary to effect any change
in HRA for `A' class staff. The Commission has suggested to
increase allowances in context to education, transportation,
medical by a big margin. On the whole the implementation of
the recommendations would make the central officials and employees
richer. But there is no reason seen in increasing maternity
leave to 6 months from 3 months. In the changing scenario
such long periods for maternity leave does not seem right.
Three national holidays are sufficient. Working hours for
other days of the week, looking to holidays on Saturday and
Sunday, should be increased, to maintain balance.
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