“I would like our civil and defence services personnel to be properly rewarded,” the Prime Minister said here today while addressing officers on the occasion of the third Civil Services Day.

The Prime Minister’s formal expression of support to the armed forces’ demand follows the Cabinet’s decision 10 days ago, to set up an Empowered Committee of Secretaries for reviewing the report of the Sixth Central Pay Commission.

The Cabinet announced the constitution of a committee headed by Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar to address the disillusionment expressed over the pay commission report, by the armed forces, Indian Police Service officers, scientists, government employees and employees associations.

Prior to this, the government had set up a committee headed by finance secretary D. Subbarao to look into the grievances of armed forces and IPS officers.

Empathising with the sentiments of a section of the civil services staff, the Prime Minister said the Administrative Reforms Commission and the pay commission are all a part of the government’s effort to redress deficiencies of the system.

“The pay commission has recently submitted its report and some concerns and apprehensions have been expressed by some sections of the civil services staff on some parts of the report.

Government has already set in motion a mechanism for hearing and redressing these grievances. I also believe that the tax payers will not grudge anyone of us better remuneration as long as we are serving the best interests of our people, our country most efficiently.”

In the same breath, the PM emphasised that civil servants in turn ought to match public’s expectations and rebuild public confidence in their functioning.

He said improved work conditions should go hand in hand with work improvement on the ground. “Given government’s deep commitment towards the welfare of all its employees equally, I would also expect the highest standards of discipline and decorum from our civil servants.”

After congratulating recipients of the Civil Service awards, Singh asked the civil service officers to introspect and recognise “a great deal of public dissatisfaction with the functioning of the government at all levels.”

He said the civil services ought to address this challenge as a collective entity. “The most important challenge is that of instilling confidence in our people that our civil services are fair, honest as well as efficient.”

Drawing the attention of the civil service officers to the social sector, Singh said, “We need in our civil services a renewed commitment to placing oneself on the side of the disadvantaged in society. Special attention must be paid to the needs of the poor particularly the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, women and children. Such a commitment is success of our strategy of promoting inclusive growth.”