Bhubaneswar: Failure of the Fitment Committee set up by the Odisha government to finalise the modalities and submit a report within the deadline has increased the likelihood of delay in implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission for the government employees and pensioners.
The 6-member Fitment Committee, constituted on October 31, 2016 was scheduled to submit its review report within four months. The committee will finalise the modalities pertaining to grade pay, pay scale, various categories of salaries and allowances. The Committee has already met several employees’ associations in this regard.
The Odisha Secretariat Service Association is eagerly awaiting the committee’s report and has already written letter to the Finance secretary in this connection. The Association has also demanded that it should be consulted once again prior to implementation of the recommendations.
“We have been demanding and would like to reiterate that the Chief Minister should announce the new pay scales as soon as possible. It will motivate the employees,” said general secretary of the Association, Krushna Prasad Mohapatra.
“We have already informed that the scale of pay is not enough starting from lower levels of Odisha Administrative Services (OAS). We hope that the State government will soon look into it and take necessary steps,” said president of State OAS Association, Saroj Samal.
On the other hand, in the recently tabled State Budget, the State government has not clarified whether it has made any budgetary allocations for implementation the 7th Pay Commission recommendation. However, under the administration head, the government has proposed Rs 47,466 crore in the 2017-18 budget of which Rs 22,000 crore has been earmarked for salaries and Rs 11,313 crores for pension.
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“We have a Fitment Committee chaired by the Development Commissioner which will submit the report shortly and on the basis of the report, the State government will take a decision,” said Principal Secretary, Finance, Tuhin Kant Pandey.
Currently the state government is incurring Rs 29,836 crore for salaries of its employees and with the implementation of the pay panel recommendation, the State Exchequer will have additional burden of around Rs 5,000 crore. It is expected that there will be a hike of 23% in the basic pay of a government employee.