Divisional Secretary wrote to the General Secretary:
Who will think and when ?
Bruhaspati Samal
D/S, AIPEU, Gr.-C, Bhubaneswar Division
e-Mail:bsamalbbsr@gmail.com
When inflation has remained a problem, Kashmir has exploded yet again, the Maoist menace has raged unchecked, each session of parliament is rocked by one scandal or another, the Cabinet gave its nod to hiking the basic pay of the MPs from Rs 16,000 to Rs 50,000 per month costing the Govt. to Rs.211 crores including the arrears. The government also increased office expenses and constituency allowance ( both non-taxable ) of parliamentarians from Rs 20,000 to Rs 45,000 each per month. The limit for interest-free loan for MPs for buying a personal vehicle has been hiked four-fold to Rs 4 lakh from the present Rs 1 lakh. The government has also hiked road mileage rate for vehicles used by MPs from Rs 13 per km to Rs 16 per km. Spouse of a parliamentarian can now travel any number of times in first class or executive class. Pension benefits have also been increased from Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000 per month. Three land-line telephones and two mobile phones with 150000 free calls, 34 times free air journey, unlimited first class train journey for MP and his/her spouse, 50000 unit free electricity, 4000 kiloliter free water, rent free furnished Govt. accommodation in Delhi even with free sofa cover, curtains and many more have been approved by the cabinet. In toto, an annual package of Rs 37 lakhs or more.
We are not arguing against the hike in salary and perks of our MPs. But we would certainly like to recall the philosophy and guiding principles of the 6th Central Pay Commission in monetizing and quantifying the job security, pension benefits, work-life balance and status etc. to have a clear , comprehensive and accurate picture of the total expenditure being incurred on Government employees , both civil and military, since non-monetary perquisites scattered over many budgetary heads, according to the Commission mask the true picture of the expenditure incurred on Government employees. Similarly through introduction of Performance Related Incentive Scheme, the 6th CPC has recommended to ensure better delivery systems in the Government with emphasis on end user satisfaction and for judging the efficiency of an organization. But, no such philosophy, no such guiding principle is necessary for hiking the pay and allowances of the MPs. Unlike the rest of us who are dependent on pay commissions for salary reviews, MPs depend on nobody. If they want to raise their own salaries, they bring a bill before parliament and pass it. Nobody else needs to be consulted.
But what the nation unfortunately witnessed, the outraged MPs created hell in Parliament and in view of the uproar the Lok Sabha was adjourned. The reason is that this is much less than the figure of Rs 80,001 recommended by the parliamentary committee which had said the MPs should get more than government secretaries as the former are above them in the hierarchy. The members contended that government had “insulted Parliament” by rejecting the recommendation of its own Committee to raise the basic salary to Rs. 80,001 per month. Citing protocol, the members have been demanding the salary to be more than that of a Secretary to the government.
Who will ask – Why shouldn’t the Indian MP’s be paid on a “Pay for Performance basis? If they perform for their constituency, the constituency should decide what remuneration they will receive. It is a known fact that MPs and MLAs do not devote 100% time to their constituency development work, parliament and other governance related work. MPs and MLAs use nearly 50% of their time in party work i.e. collecting funds, propagating party ideology etc. Is there any need to raise salaries of non performing Parliamentarians? For payment to Government employees if the 6th Central Pay Commission could say “ The capacity of the Government to pay is limited” ( Para 1.2.5 ), why should taxpayers pay MPs and MLAs for their party work? Disciplinary / Conduct rules do stand on the way when the Govt. employees adopt any agitational programme / strike etc. So why “No work No Pay” won’t be strictly applicable to all MPs causing adjournment of Houses ? If their pensions with just 5 year term is not ridiculous, why same norm won’t be applicable to all Government Servants? Can’t we expect that the MP’s salaries, perks and privileges must be looked by Pay Commission in totality ?
Now let’s come out of the Parliament and see what is happening inside our Department. Just one example to cite. Para – 3 of the letter No. No.CHQ/1ASP/SCPC, dated 09-08-2010 written by Sri Roop Chand, General Secretary, AIAIPASP to Ms. Radhika Doraiswamy, Director General, Department of Posts, Dak Bhawan, New Delhi-110001 on up-gradation of Grade Pay to the cadre of Inspector Posts states “In order to keep the post attractive, it is required to upgrade the Grade Pay of Inspector Posts on par with Inspector, CBDT/CBEC. It is further brought to your kind notice that due to implementation of MACP scheme, even the Postman has got the Grade Pay of Rs.4200/- and the Postal /Sorting Assistant has got the Grade Pay of Rs.4600/-. Now, new entrant in the cadre of Inspector Posts is getting less pay than a Postman who is being supervised by the Inspector Posts. It is not a healthy trend to have a defective command and control structure in the Department of Posts.”
In this context, may I ask one thing - Have the Group-C postal employees committed a crime when everybody from MP to IP is seen proving himself logical and right protocol wise and hierarchy wise? I have to ask only one simple question - How a senior Postal Assistant conferred with 3rd MACP with grade Pay Rs.4600/- will work under an LSG / HSG-II official having Grade Pay with Rs.2800/- / Rs.4200/-? Isn’t it unconstitutional? Isn’t it a defective control structure? Won’t it certainly be justified to hike the Grade Pay of an LSG official at least to Rs.4600/- to maintain the hierarchy? But who will think and when ?
It feels good to see an article covering many features and to some extent addressing national issues like KASHMIR problem. It also give me immense pleasure to find the stro0ng logical argument for pay hike of LSG officials. But it is equally painfully to find the mean interest of high profile union leaders for not representing the interest of newly recruit PA/SAs. When MPs/MLAs do deserve a pension after a meagre tenure how do our Govt. justify the CPF for employees serving for more than 30 year ?? Definitely all the new faces /comrades would like some of the key issues like pension/ rationalisation of GP etc. to feature in the union agenda.We shall be previledged to find some articles from the union pads soon. JAI HIND.
ReplyDeletePrabhakara Satapathy,
PA, Cuttack South Divn.
Dear Comrade Satapathy,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I would like to congratulate you for going through the article and recording your comments. But I will certainly contradict your views that high profile union leaders are not representing the interest of newly recruited PA/SAs. Your views are totally incorrect. Dear Comrade, perhaps you are not aware that National Federation of Postal Employees along with the Confederation of Central Govt. Employees is sincerely protesting PFRDA Bill / CPF since introduction of the same. Several agitational programmes are being organized nationwide particularly in this aspect and the struggle is still continuing. In Orissa Circle we feel proud enough to be a part of NFPE to protest against such injustice. Perhaps you have not participated in the last one day all India general strike called by the Confederation on 07.09.2010. Out of 10 demands, withdrawal of PFRDA bill and extension of the statutory defined benefit pension scheme to all Government employees was very much categorical at Sl. No. 9. This is just one out of many programmes organized before.
Please read the following to know the concern of the leaders for the newly recruited Central Govt. Employees as published by the Confederation.
“The present defined benefit scheme of pension was introduced replacing the then existing contributory system. As part of the neo liberal economic policies, the Government decided to reconvert the same into contributory and make the fund available for the stock market operations. It is the vagaries of the stock market which will determine the pension returns from this fund. Before the introduction of the PFRDA bill, the Government had set up a committee under the chairmanship of Shri Bhattacharya, Chief Secretary of the State of Karnataka. The bill has been drafted and presented to the Parliament disregarding even the recommendation of the said committee to the effect that the Govt. should consider introducing a hybrid system by which the employees will have a defined benefit, if they choose to be satisfied with the said return and can opt for a higher return through stock exchange investments. The Bill could not be passed in the Parliament as the Left Parties took the principled position that they would not support a proposal detrimental to the interest of the employees. Despite the non passage of the bill and the consequent absence of a valid law to support the Pension Regulatory authority, the Govt. has converted the existing pension scheme into a contributory one and invested a percentage of the fund so generated from the employees contribution in the Stock market, whose index has crashed to one third of the value at the time of investment.
Pension is earned by an employee by rendering service and therefore there is no requirement of any payment by the employee for earning pension. This statutory right of the employee is enforceable through courts. The Supreme Court has declared pension as one of the fundamental rights. The government should therefore retrace from its avowed position, which is detrimental to the interest of the employees and ensure that the employees recruited after 1.1.2004 is covered by the existing statutory defined benefit scheme by withdrawing the PFRDA bill from the Parliament.”
Dear Comrade! Can you tell now that the leaders are not representing? The struggle is continuing. Be a part of it. Success will be yours.