In defence of the ranks

The proposals put forward by the three Services Chiefs for parity of pay to the Armed forces will cost the country only Rs 450 crore. This is a small price for ending the resentment in the services on the issue of discriminatory pay and pension, reports Ajay Banerjee

Just wait for the good news, may well be what Defence Minister A.K. Antony seems to be indicating here.

The recent refusal of the Army, Navy and the Air Force to accept the revised pay scales has lent new urgency to the issue of anomalies in the Sixth Pay Commission report, which was to be implemented from October 1. To resolve the issue, the Services Chiefs have made some recommendations to the Defence Minister A. K. Antony seeking to ensure parity of pay for the men in the Armed forces with their civilian and paramilitary counterparts.

The Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had said, "We have made our recommendations and the government has decided to set up a panel. So, let us see how the deliberations go. We are hopeful that it will look into our genuine and bona fide requests`85.I want to clarify that this talk of differences between the Armed forces and the government...I think that is not right. The fact is that the Defence Ministry is positive, and with us," added General Kapoor.

The Armed forces have been seething with resentment at the indifference of the bureaucratic machinery that handled the pay commission provisions for the services. According to the report, the defence officers will get paid less salary vis-`E0-vis their civilian equivalents. Also, the pension of jawans has been reduced drastically. The issues that have been highlighted by the Chiefs of the three services and have found support with the Defence Minister are:

Lowering of status: Compared to their civilian counterparts, officers of the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel and their equivalent ranks in the Air Force and Navy are being paid less. A Lt-Col will now be paid Rs 10,000 less than his civilian counterpart. The three Service Chiefs have pointed out that the Director’s rank on the civil side has been moved into pay-band 4 but the rank of Lt-Col and its equivalent ranks in other services have been retained in pay-band 3. Earlier, a Lt-Col got the same pay as an officer of the IAS cadre holding the post of Director and Rs 800 more than a non-IAS cadre Director. Now the officer in the forces will get about Rs 11,000 less than an IAS Director and Rs 8,000 less than a non-IAS Director. There are about 19,000 officers in the rank of Lt-Col, who command various formations of the Army at the field level.

Less pay: Lieutenant Generals and their counterparts in the Air Force and the Navy will now be paid even less than the DGPs at the state level as the pay commission has restricted the elite list that is the higher administrative grade-plus (HAG-plus). The promotion of a DGP is at the whim of political parties in the states where these posts can be created, whereas the posts of Lt-Gen, Admiral and Air Marshal are limited and cannot be added to or created. The ascent to the top in the Armed forces has a high dropout rate as the selection procedure is tough. The HAG-plus includes all DGPs but in the Armed forces, it is only the Army Commanders and their equivalents in other services. The Services Chiefs have complained about this and want that all officers in the rank of the Lt-Gen should be included in this category. Earlier the DGPs and Lt-Generals were on a par with each other.

Disparity in Grade Pay: The committee of secretaries that was looking into the anomalies created by the Sixth Pay Commission has already agreed to the demand of the Armed forces to increase grade pay across the middle-rank officers. But at the ground level the civil servants have retained the disparity. For example, the pay commission had recommended Rs 6,600 for a civil servant equivalent to the rank of a Major, who was to get Rs 6,100. After review, a Major will now get Rs 6600 but his equivalent rank in the civil services will get Rs 7,600. Such is the disparity that even a Superintending Engineer of the military engineering services, who got less salary than a Lt-Col, will be paid more.

Reduced pension for jawans: The pay commission has cut the weightage for pension to jawans to only 50 per cent of the last pay drawn as against the prevalent 70 per cent. This effectively reduces the amount. The forces want restoration of the earlier weightage until the scheme for lateral entry into the para-military forces is implemented.

To restore the parity, it will cost the country about Rs 450 crore. This hardly seems much when the Defence budgets of our immediate neighbours like China and Pakistan are rising, says a senior official. This has come up at a time when the country is already struggling to retain the best talent in the Armed forces and not many youths want to join the Armed forces. A number of serving Army officers at the middle level want to leave, while Indian Air Force pilots, too, are looking for better options.

The issue has also given rise to a debate at the national level as to why salaries should not be linked to peculiarities of service conditions of each cadre rather than creating a hierarchy where the IAS is at the top.

Such is the groundswell of feelings against the discriminatory pay scales of the Sixth Pay Commission that this is a hotly debated issue on the web. Leading websites have been conducting online polls and the opinions posted are overwhelmingly in favour of the forces. "Pay them their due and recognise the hard work, hardship and sacrifice" is the general drift of the messages.