Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: 12 member expert committee to review 6th Pay Commission report

12 member expert committee to review 6th Pay Commission report
================================================================================
SPECIALCORRESPONDENT on 11 April, 2008 11:39:00
 
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for the setting up of an
Empowered Committee of secretaries to process the Sixth Central Pay Commission
report. The 12 member high power committee under the Cabinet Secretary K M
Chandrasekhar would examine the report and address the grievances of the non-IAS
officers.
Representative associations of the armed forces, police and paramilitary
services and virtually all sections of central government employees, except
officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), have protested the
recommendations of the pay panel.
The Empowered Committee will mainly function as a screening committee for
recommendations and final recommendations of the Empowered Committee have to be
submitted to the Cabinet for approval.
Railways Minister Lalu Prasad has described the Pay Commission recommendations
as "highly discriminatory and not in the least equitable". He is reported to
have raised the issue in the cabinet meeting and articulated the grievances of
the armed forces, the police services, all class III and class IV employees but
specially of railways employees.
He reportedly told his cabinet colleagues, "We have to ensure equitable
distribution. My railways employees are threatening to go on strike. If that
happens, the country will suffer immensely. So we should remove all anomalies
and not accept the recommendations without a thorough study by an expert
committee."
(With inputs from PTI)