7th Pay Commission: Why the next 15 days will be crucial for CG employees

New Delhi, Feb 05: There is some good news on the 7th Pay Commission for a certain section of employees.

The Ministry of Human Resources has extended the benefits of the pay panel for teachers, equivalent academic staff, registrars, finance officers and controller of examinations in Central Universities and colleges.

The benefits would come to effect from July 1 2017. It may be recalled that that on January 15 the Centre had approved a proposal to extend the benefits of the 7th Pay Commission to teachers and other academic staff of the state government and government aided degree level technical institutions. This would cost the Centre an addition Rs 1,241.78 crore.

While this would bring cheer to lakhs, there is still no word for the Central Government employees who are awaiting an increase in their basic minimum pay. There is plenty of resentment building among the CG employees, who say that the government has turned a blind eye to their demands.

The CG employees had expected that an announcement relating to the hike in basic minimum pay would have been made, but their hopes came down dashing after the same was presented. With no major announcements expected, the only ray of hope is that the Union Cabinet could take some decision.

However what CG employees must bear in mind is that if any decision were to be taken it should be anytime before March 2019. This is because the Election Commission of India would announce the dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Once this is done, the model code of conduct would come into force, following no major announcement, including that relating to the 7th Pay Commission can be made.