7th Pay Commission: Latest news, good news on its way as pension is doubled

There is some good news on the 7th Pay Commission. The Madhya Pradesh government has taken a decision which will benefit 4.39 lakh pensioners in the state. The government has cleared a proposal to double the pension amount.

The cabinet also gave its nod to double the monthly honorarium of anganwadi workers. The decisions come months ahead of the state Assembly elections that are due by the end of the year. "The state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan approved the proposal to provide the benefits of the 7th Pay Commission to the pensioners (including retired government employees and those getting family pension)," public relations minister Narottam Mishra said.

"Effectively, pension would go up by 2.57 times. This would put an additional burden of Rs 850 crore on the state exchequer. This would benefit 4.39 pensioners in the state," he said. The pensioners would get the benefit with retrospective effect starting from January 1, 2016. Mishra said that the state cabinet also gave its nod to the proposal to double the monthly honorarium of anganwadi workers to Rs 10,000 from the present Rs 5,000.

The monthly honorarium of assistant anganwadi workers has also been increased to Rs 5,750 from Rs 3,250, he said. The cabinet also gave its go-ahead to a scheme of providing a diet allowance of Rs 4,000 per month to pregnant women labourers. Under the scheme, a pregnant woman labourer will get an assistance of Rs 4,000 per month for nutritional diet, and Rs 12,000 post-delivery assistance.

According to Mishra, the move would benefit 8.64 lakh women labourers in the unorganised sector in the state. The minister said the cabinet also gave its nod to the implementation of National Health Protection Mission (Ayushman Bharat), which would cover 83.81 families of labourers working in the unorganised sector. This scheme would be launched in the state on August 15, 2018.

Meanwhile the Delhi High Court stepped into intervene in a matter pertaining to the 7th Pay Commission. The court issued notices to the Delhi government, MCDs and the Unaided Schools Association on a Public Interest Litigation seeking implementation of the pay panel's recommendations.

The court if it passes an order will benefit two lakh teaching and non-teaching staff. These are the employees working in over 2,000 unaided private schools in Delhi.

The Delhi high court has asked these authorities to submit the status report on the matter within six weeks, news agency ANI reported. The staff of private unaided schools in the national capital have been demanding the 7th Pay Commission benefits for a long time.

An NGO - Social Jurist - had filed a flea on May 18 in the court seeking the court's direction to the Delhi government and three municipal corporations to ensure implementation of 7th Pay Commission recommendation for over two lakh teaching and non-teaching staff. The plea sought HC direction to authorities for appropriate action as per the provisions of the Delhi School Education Act against erring private schools.

The NGO said that the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission be implemented to bring the pay, allowances and other benefits of staff of private unaided schools at par with those working schools run by the government, and three municipal corporations. The salaries of staff of unaided private schools were revised with effect from January 1 as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission.

The staff were also not paid their arrears. Not only the unaided private schools are blatantly flouting the statutory mandate prescribed under the DSE Act, the authorities by not taking any action against the erring schools, appear to be absolutely apathetic towards the plight of over two lakh teaching and non-teaching employees working in the unaided private schools of Delhi, the plea added while also stating the inequality in pay was baseless and discriminatory.