7th Pay Commission: Pay parity puts govt on back-foot; know why IAS, IPS officers are fighting

New Delhi, Nov 3: Getting the whiff that Government may restore parity between different government services in terms of compensation in Seventh Pay Commission , the Indian Administrative Service(IAS) officers have taken up a cudgel against the Centre.

Reportedly, the officers of IAS and IFS ranks shot off more than 100 letters recently to protest against any such move of the government. Letter were written to ministry of personnel and training (MoPT).

A war of words between officers of most sought-after IAS and those belonging to other central government services like IRS have started on various social media platform like Whatsapp and twitter.

Both the faction have their own justification to prove their point.

Headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar Mathur, Pay Commission report will be submitted in the third week of the November. Most likely, Pay commission will come into effect from January 1, 2016.

What IAS officers are saying

IAS rank is considered to be most coveted among all government services . To get this rank, aspirants often appear again and again in the exam, despite getting other ranks like IPS and IRS.

IAS officers are of the view that since they were empanelled in IAS as they performed better in the Civil Service Exams, they deserve better salary and career progression. In support of their point, IAS officers say they never complained working long hours, and often in remote locations, so why they should be at par with IRS, IPS officers.

"Equality of opportunity to perform is the backbone of healthy competition but equality of rewards irrespective of one's performance is an antithesis to the whole idea of competition," letter to government said..

Reacting sharply over the issue, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, Secretary of central IAS officers' association said, "There is a lot of frustration and resentment among the young officers. They have taken a conscious decision of joining IAS after viewing their career options".

He further added, "Some of them have left very good private sector jobs abroad and joined the civil service. Most of them were selected in other services but they chose to sit in exam again to become an IAS officer. The merit of these boys should not be ignored".

IPS, IRS officers' point of view

Opposition faction has refuted all the claims of the IAS officers that later deserved better pay scales. IRS, IPS officers too have launched a counter-campaign against IAS officers on social media.
Demanding that pay should be decided on the basis of domain competence, rather than service alone, sulking IRS officers alleged that IAS officers are getting tacit support from politicians.

"Winning a gold medal once does not entitle anyone to an automatic gold medal in every competition in their life", IRS officers said in terse message .

Supporting IPS officers' demand, retired IPS officer and a BJP leader Kiran Bedi tweeted, "Apartheid in pay scales of All India Civil Services must go,for all to feel inclusive #parity4allservices #IASNoUsainBolt".

In another tweet, she further said, "Unaddressed apartheid in pay parity+service matters in All India Civil Services has hurt-performance. V need shared missionary zeal in AllIndiaCivilServices, not ongoing pay fissures".

Pay disparity

• At present IAS officers have edge in terms of pay parity and career progression.
• They are promoted two years earlier than IPS, IRS officers.
• IAS and IFS officers also preferred over their counterparts as far as their appointment in plum posts of Central ministries.
• As per mint report, IAS or an IFS officer gets around Rs.4,000-5,000 a month more than their counterparts after four years of service. This becomes a huge total after 14th and 17th year of the service.
• It is being said that IAS and IFS officers get additional increments at 3% each over their basic pay that makes a huge gap over their counterpart.

OneIndia News