Rajasthan: Sixth pay commission creates agitations

Jaipur, Sep 20: An agitation regarding the implementation of the sixth pay commission has emerged in the State of Rajasthan on Saturday, Sep 20. The BJP Government had tried to implement the sixth pay commission to project the ruling party's 'employee friendly' attitude, just before the Assembly polls.

Various employees' organisations were gearing up to join the agitation for redressal of their grievances over anomalies and disparity in pay scales and/or allowances or fixation in grade. While Akhil Rajasthan Rajya Karmachari Samyunkta Mahasangh (Chaudhary faction) and some teachers unions have already launched the agitation, as many as 13 employees outfits have constituted a Joint Action Committee to draw a strategy for early redressal of their grievances.

The employees of various state boards and corporations, who were presently excluded from the Pay Commission's benefits, have also started raising their voice for seeking the pay scales at par to their counterparts in the state and Central governments.

The main cause of discontent among employees was reported to be disparity in pay scales worked out by the state Finance Department on the basis of the Pay Penal's report and the same granted by the Centre to the Central Governemnt employees.

Besides the employees were unhappy with the reported changes in formula for computation of salary and allowances, date of pay fixation, change in existing time bound promotion on completion of nineth, 18th and 27th year of the service.

The Central government had granted benefits of Pay Penal with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006, and given pay fixation based on price index as on January 1, 2006, whereas the Rajasthan Government implemented the report from September 1,2006, and also given pay fixation benefit from the same date.

This has not only left the state government employees at a loss of entitlement for arrears of nine months, but also denied them benefit of merger of dearness allowance up to July 2006, in their basic salary.

Formula and procedure adopted by the state government in restructure of pay scales also created a difference of around Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 in basic salary in a number of pay scales in state and their equivalent scales in the Central government, agitating employees leaders felt.

A number of employees and trade union leaders were of the view that the entire exercise undertaken by the state in implementing the commission report, would leave majority of the seven lakh employees at a recurring loss of Rs 800 to Rs 1,200 per month.

The state government, meanwhile, constituted a three-member committee yesterday headed by Additional Chief Secretary Krishna Bhatnagar for addressing the anomalies.

OneIndia News