Defence Minister Antony says government, armed forces do not differ on pay hike

New Delhi, Oct 1 : Defence Minister AK Antony today dismissed reports of differences between the Central government and the armed forces over the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) on salaries of Armed Forces personnl. .

Antony disclosed that the government was ready to add Rs 6,000 crore as further commitment over and above the Pay Commission's recommendations.

"I just want to clarify that this talk of differences between the armed forces and the government is not right,'' Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had said after Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta was reportedly pulled up by the Defence Minister for crossing the line by refusing to accept the pay panel's recommendations.

According to Antony, the three Services chiefs have already submitted detailed aspects of changes in the salary structure.

Last Saturday, addressing the concerns of the personnel belonging to three wings of the armed forces, the Centre had ordered release of their ad-hoc arrears for the current year this week.

The development paved the way for the 1.5 million personnel to take home the revised pay on October 1.

The central government has also constituted a three-member committee, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to look into the pay-related anomalies of the Services. Other members on the high-level committee include the Defence Minister and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Following the CPC notification last month, Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, Air Force Chief Fali Homi Major and Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor had reportedly expressed their disappointment over the "disparities" between their emoluments and their civilian counterparts in the Police Services and the Indian Administrative Service. .

The Defence Minister intervened on behalf of the armed forces by writing to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Finance Minister, seeking resolution of the four "core issues" raised by the defence Services.

ANI