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Thursday, August 28, 2008

(UPDATED) Services to officially take up downgradation of status and pay of Lt Col

The services are all set to officially take up the issue of downgradation of the rank of Lt Col by the Anomalies Committee vis-à-vis the civilian counterparts. The Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee is already in the picture and a step towards the right direction was also taken by the Air Chief according to reports. For all those who have been cribbing about inaction by the service top brass to tackle the issue, rest assured that the three Chiefs are doing their best to reduce such anomalies to the barest minimum. It’s a tough job up there and we must realize it.

For the uninitiated on the issue, following may be recalled for the sake of repetition :-

FOURTH PAY COMMISSION

Pre-revised 4th CPC pay scale of Lt Col : Rs 4700 - Rs 5900

Pre-revised 4th CPC pay scale of Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG) of the Civil Services : Rs 4100 - Rs 5300 / Rs 4500 - Rs 5700 (Two Grades)

FIFTH PAY COMMISSION

Pre-revised 5th CPC pay scale of Lt Col : Rs 15,100 – Rs 18,700

Pre-revised 5th CPC pay scale of Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG) of the Civil Services : Rs 14,300 – Rs 18,300

SIXTH PAY COMMISSION

Post-revised 6th CPC pay scale of Lt Col : Rs 15900 – Rs 39100 (Pay Band – 3 ) with Grade Pay of Rs 7600

Post-revised 6th CPC pay scale of Non-Functional Selection Grade (NFSG) of the Civil Services : Rs 37,400 – Rs 67000 (Pay Band – 4) with a Grade Pay of Rs 8700

And now Ladies & Gentlemen, the clincher :

Pay received by a Lt Col on the bottom of scale as on 01-01-2006 as per 5th CPC rates : Rs 28,000 (Appx)

Pay received by a civil NFSG officer at the bottom of scale as on 01-01-2006 as per 5th CPC rates: Rs 26,500 (Appx)

Basic Pay of a Lt Col as on 01-08-2008 as per 6th CPC rates : Rs 31,500 (Appx)

Basic Pay of a civil NFSG officer as on 01-08-2008 as per 6th CPC rates : Rs 45,000 (Appx)

NFSG officers who were drawing a pay lesser than Lt Colonels are now in Pay Band-4 while Lt Colonels remain in Pay Band – 3. NFSG officers on the civil side include Superintending Engineers (SEs) of the Central Engineering Services, Directors of Govt of India, Commandants in Central Police Organizations, Addl Commissioners of Income Tax, Scientists ‘E’ of Central Scientific Departments etc. The time taken to reach NFSG by a directly recruited Civil Services Group A officer is 13 years and it was to maintain this parity that the time span for promotion to the rank of Lt Col was also reduced to 13 years. A section of civilian officers have pointed out that while a DPC (Departmental Promotion Committee) is held for NFSG and even lower ranks, the same is not done for Lt Colonels and hence NFSG officers need to be provided an edge over Lt Colonels. It may however be pointed out here that every service has a different criterion and system for promotions, while Army officers have to pass promotion exams and have to meet other criteria such as medical requirements, the system followed by the civil services is different. On the other hand, 100% of directly appointed Group A Civil Services officers recruited through the Central Civil Services Examination make it to NFSG unless there is a disciplinary/ vigilance hitch, hence the term ‘Selection Grade’ in that sense is a misnomer. Some officers have asked whether rank pay is to be added into basic pay. The answer lies in Para 2(b) of Special Army Instruction 2/S/98 issued by the Govt of India which says that rank pay is very much a part of basic pay, hence it is to be added into basic for all intents and purposes. Any letter to the contrary issued by any officer in the MoD by self interpretation has no force of law or legal sanctity.

Also read the below from Yahoo.Com

Anomaly in reviewed pay commission: IAF chief

Wed, Aug 27 07:35 PM

New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS)
The government must take immediate steps to restore the parity in the pay scales of officers of the rank of Lieutenant Colonels and equivalent with their civilian and Coast Guard counterparts who have been awarded more emoluments by the Sixth Pay Commission, says Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major.

Major has made the plea in a letter to Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Indian Navy chief, urging him to intervene before the government implements the recommendations made by the pay commission.

"The finance ministry 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," Major wrote in the letter sent Monday. A copy of the letter was made available to IANS.

"It is reliably learnt that civilian and paramilitary officers in the extant pay scales S-24 (Rs.14,300-400-18,300) and S-25 (Rs.15,100-400-18,300) will be placed in pay band-4, whereas the same is being denied to the armed forces officers (Lt. Col. and equivalent) who were already in S-25," Major said.

The IAF chief has pointed that because of this the civilian officers who were in the lower pay bracket (S-24) and were hitherto drawing lesser pay than Lieutenant Colonels and officers of equivalent ranks would now draw a higher basic salary.

At present, the India Army, the Indian Navy and IAF have 11,187, 3,528 and 4,216 officers, respectively, of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and equivalent.

"This is not just affecting a Lt. Col. Because of this the pay of Coast Guard's commandant with 23 years of experience will be equivalent to a Rear Admiral with 30 years of experience," a senior army official said.

The cabinet Aug 14 cleared the revised recommendations of the pay commission, granting huge hikes to five million government employees, with special attention paid to military and paramilitary personnel.

According to the government, the revision translates into a 20 percent hike over the 40 percent across-the-board increase the pay commission had recommended.

The government promised at least three promotions for defence personnel and civilian employees under the modified assured career progression (ACP) scheme.

Civilians will be assured of promotions after 10, 20 and 30 years of service. Junior and non-commissioned officers and personnel below officer rank (PBOR) will be eligible for this after 8, 16 and 24 years of work.

The Military Service Pay recommended by the pay commission has been doubled to Rs.2,000 for PBORs and retained at Rs.6,000 for officers up to the rank of brigadiers.

Middle level officers - colonels, brigadiers and equivalent - are now placed in the highest pay band of PB-4. Lieutenant generals overlooked for promotion as army commanders due to lack of residual service will get the grade of an army commander.

The report of the Sixth Pay Commission, headed by Justice (retd) B.N. Srikrishna, was submitted to Finance Minister P. Chidambaram March 24.

It led to protests from both civilian and defence personnel, following which the government appointed a committee under Cabinet Secretary K. Chandrashekhar to study the various demands for financial corrections.

The three service chiefs also made a joint representation to Defence Minister A.K. Antony.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo. A true leader.

Unknown said...

@ patriot
what bravo?
these generals who just want to be governer of some state do you think? they will fight for you

Anonymous said...

@ kartikey
At least he has the ba*** to put his governership on line for the men he commands

Anonymous said...

Righto, patriot! But why did it take 2 weeks to wake up when the point was made on this blog by our man Navdeep on the 14th?

Anonymous said...

I think posts like COAS , CAS, CNS should be such that they should not be allowed to take any beneficial post offered by govt (something like chief Election commissioner ) . only then we can expect some thing worthwhlile from them . otherwise they will keep passing their tenure without projecting any problems of the troops and sky will always remain blue for them ( they have blue walls and dont come out of their home 0

Anonymous said...

This has come from Air Chief and not from Army Chief.Boss is still contemplating whether to speakup or not.No point banging your head against wall.All these clowns are hand in glove and playing to the tunes of politicians.Our pains are part of a bigger design and someting extra ordinary is required to be done to reverse this process.
A FRUSTRATED LT COL.

DEEPAKRAICHOWDHARY said...

egards to Air Chief .Great leadership to lead from the front.Hats Off.
Good work Major Navdeep Singh to keep us updated.

DEEPAKRAICHOWDHARY said...

Regards to Air Chief .Great leadership to lead from the front.Hats Off.
Good work Major Navdeep Singh to keep us updated.

Anonymous said...

No words sufficient to express thanks to major navjeet and the CAS.
welldone. bravo, thanks to partriats

Anonymous said...

thats like a 'leader by birth'.Rare to find these days on field at such a high post.We in the IAF are proud to be commanded by him.

Anonymous said...

It is a great injustice done to the Lt Cols who are the backbone of Army.
Hope Dr. Manmohan Singh and his secretaries would correct the anomaly soon otherwise the backbone will be weakened .
Army is the last dependable instrument of the state.
Hope Govt, ministers and bureaucrats won't break its backbone.

Unknown said...

dear anonymous your totall wrong to say that army depends on lt cols
army depends on those koop manduks who are are unaware of what they should get as class one officer and they keep fu**** themshelves till the service of 17 years and when they get superceded then only they realise that they are fu****

Anonymous said...

Dear Lt Col Kartikey,
Your problem is not that you have got less but it is how others have got equal status to you which in any case was pre-existing

Anonymous said...

As we are aware problems existed mainly in the rank of lt col and equivalent hence the exodus.Most arguments regarding better deal for the Forces revolved around this cat. leave alone improving the status / izzat ,the powers that be had the audocity and indifference to further down grade lt col /eqlvt. Whose Armed Forces do we represent ? Does this country need hostile neighbours to put us in disarray with such strong bias existing against us within our own Govt set up ? Not withstanding we cant accept such gross injustice and must do wtatever it takes to get our rightful place in the soceity and the country. As a pleasnt surprise the Chiefs are doing their bit .Is it the begining of the change in the mindset of our generals ! Anyways we need to applaud their efforts and be proud of them. I am sure we will achieve our objectives as there is no such thing as impossible once we are determind .

Anonymous said...

hi all lt cols
this is an issue which affects all offrs of equivalent ranks in all sevices.lets all unite and blog and do what it takes any forum to get our due.Without us the forces will collapse we are the power and the backbone of the forces.we deserve a better deal.the chiefs should be sensitized to this issue.it should not be taken lightly it can have serious repercussions in the long run.it is the offrs of ths rank who are in touch with troops and beyond col after the command the chord breaks.so please dont weaken it further.i hope the three chiefs know what the undercurrent is at the bottom of the pyramid .the pyramid exists bec of usand it can collapse if it is weakened.it is we who carry the losd of seniors in the pyramid .God give some sanity and courage to the people at the top of the pyramid.

Anonymous said...

All said and done, Air Chief should be commended for standing up for the men and officers he commands. Its now up to the Govt and Mr Antony to show the mettle to correct the anomaly that has cropped up in the recommendations of VI CPC in respect of Lt Col and their civilian equivalents.

Anonymous said...

after reading all the comments posted, i came to a conclusion that one only sees the portion officers are getting. no one is interested be it the chiefs of the forces. has anyone notice that Sgt/havildars have been placed in pb-1 in the earlier pay scale of 4500- and not 5000-. there is a difference of grade pay of rs 4200-2800 between he two pay band. a gp x sgt of iaf was in the pay scale of 5000-100-6500 and in 6th cpc has been downgraded to 4500 scale. the argument is rs 1400 is now being as gp x pay and so rs 2800+1400 would amount to rs 4200 which is grade pay for pb-2. now i would say that the status of any person in the 6th cpc will be judged by the grade pay only as one finds in the 6th cpc report..can anyone answer my point. no one can since none has bothered to read that part. everyone is bothered about the status of commissioned officers. looks really funny.