Chandigarh, August 27
Has Punjab been facing a fiscal crisis? Going by the way state’s bureaucrats, MLAs and ministers, have been sparing no opportunity to get pay hike, arrears of salary, new luxury vehicles and even putting aside money for helicopter, it appears the state is flush with funds.
While the Union government is yet to order release of second instalment of 60 per cent arrears recommended by the Sixth Central Pay Commission for the Central government employees, the state’s bureaucrats have already drawn arrears by persuading the Chief Minister to release the amount ahead of other state governments.
Ironically the babus and politicians are opposing release of Rs 4,800 crore arrears (recommended by the Fifth State Pay Commission) for state government employees, citing lack of funds as the reason.
During the recently concluded Budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, the Finance Minister presented the Budget with a deficit of Rs 4,233 crore. But in the same session, the MLAs passed a Bill raising their salaries and allowances two times as dissenting voice of Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal was lost in the euphoria of the legislators from the treasury and opposition benches.
To the chagrin of the Finance Minister, the government has approved “study tour” of officers and politicians, to Australia to study the “Traffic Model” there. The Finance Minister has been opposing this on the ground that Punjab cannot afford such luxury, especially when all information is already available on the Internet.
The bureaucrats, IAS and IPS, are too guilty of financial imprudence like state’s politicians. Though bureaucrats of most states are yet to get second instalment of arrears recommended by the 6th Central
Pay Commission, Punjab officers have, without waiting for the Union government notification, pressurised the Chief Minister into ordering the release of arrears in advance.
They did not stop at this. Babus now have new vehicles of models and colours costing more. The purchase of the new Toyotas and Hondas has been approved on the ground that the new vehicles are more fuel efficient than Ambassador cars. The Finance Department has been asked to keep aside Rs 50 crore for the purchase of a helicopter for the Chief Minister as the lease of the helicopter from Pawan Hans is coming to an end.
Various employee organisations are up in arms over what they call “double standards” by the state bureaucrats. The recommendations of the 5th State Pay Commission have led to additional burden of Rs 2,050 crore annually on account of serving employees and Rs 650 crore for pensioners. The enhanced payments applicable from July 1, 2009, were disbursed as part of the salary and pension drawn on August 1, 2009. In addition, the state government’s liability also extends to payment of arrears to state government employees from January 1, 2006, onwards amounting to Rs 3,450 crore for serving employees and Rs 1,350 crore for pensioners.
The 6th pay commission had recommended average pay hike of 27 per cent for all Central government employees last year. The Punjab government is asking the Centre to compensate the state for the hike, but in its own expenditure it has shown no hesitation in spending.
