1. Col Rajan was informed by the GOC, Sub-Area
that the Seventh CPC was scheduled to visit Bangalore from the 24 - 26 Aug 14.
Accordingly, he tried to get a slot so that the ESM from Bangalore could be
given an opportunity to meet this august body to convey their views on the 7th CPC.
In the afternoon of 24th Aug, Col Rajan was informed that a slot would be given
for 15 minutes from 1730 hrs, the same day. Due to the short notice, Rear Adm
Alan O'Leary and Col Rajan were able to attend the meeting as Air Marshal Savur
was out of Station.
2. For the record, on 24 Aug 14 evening, RAdm
O’Leary (Retd) and Col Rajan (Retd) met the following:-
(a)
Justice (Retd) A K Mathur (Chairman)
(b) Shri
Vivek Rae, Member CPC
(c) Smt
Meena Agarwal, Member -Secretary
(d) Shri
Samir Sinha, Jt Secy, attached to the CPC.
(e) Shri
Jayant Sinha, Jt Secy, attached to the CPC
(f) Shri
Sudhir Sharma, Under Secy attached to the CPC.
3. The
following points were placed before the 7th CPC on 24 Aug 14: -
3.1. Whatever
be the Pay & Allowances that is granted to the All India Services based on
length of service, the same Pay & Allowances be granted to personnel of the
Armed Forces with corresponding length of service plus (+) X factor on account
of risk attendant to Military Service.
3.2. Review
of the present Allowances & Benefits to those bestowed with gallantry
Medals, viz. like free air travel, etc. The cash awards to gallantry need to be
increased substantially, to make the allowances & benefits meaningful.
3.3. Recommendations/Award
by the 7thCPC must be unambiguous, ie. so worded that there is
absolutely no room for any ambiguity that can be mis-interpreted by the those
implementing the orders in Ministry of Defence and those providing financial
concurrence in Ministry of Finance; a classic example being grant of ‘Rank Pay’
to Officers by the 4thCPC w.e.f 01.01.1986.
3.4. Every
CPC has said that when it comes to Pay & Allowances, the personnel of the
Armed Forces must enjoy a slight
edge vis-à-vis All India Services. That being so, Grade Pay & Military
Service Pay must be clubbed together with the Basic Pay, while fixing the new
Pay Scales in respect of the Armed Forces’ personnel.
3.5. Rear Adm
Alan O'Leary brought out that most of the anomalies in the last Pay Commission
resulted because the Sixth CPC did not share their recommendations with the
PARC, before submitting their report. Therefore he suggested, that this be done
in the Seventh CPC, and their findings are shared with the Services Pay Cells,
before the report is finalised.
4. Rear
Admiral Alan O'Leary, sought another slot where a larger forum headed by Air
Marshal Savur could also be present. This was not agreed to, as the Chairman
stated, that owing to a paucity of time they could not give another slot.
Furthermore, they would be meeting the Chiefs shortly, who had already conveyed
their aspirations to the CPC and that they were severely hard pressed for time.
5. The same night however, Rear Admiral Alan O'Leary received a
call from Mr Samir Sinha, that a member of the Seventh CPC, Mr Vivek Rae, would
like to meet him the next day. Rear Adm Alan O'Leary contacted Mr Vivek Rae and
a meeting was fixed with a larger forum of ESM at 1730 Hours.
6. On
25 Aug 14, the meeting commenced at about 1720 hrs. Lt Gen Kamat, RAdm O’Leary,
Col Rajan, Air Mshl Savur and Col Srikantha Seshadri, (all retd, names in
alphabetical order) met Shri Vivek Rae, Member, and Shri Jayant Sinha Joint
Secretary 7th CPC & coordinator for Defence Services
matters. The following points were placed before them for wider consultation
and consideration: -
6.1. Pay
6.1.1. Pay for
Armed Forces Officers should be determined at par with the AIS and Group A
organised Services, as per length of service.
It was
elucidated that in the Armed Forces the date of Commission is the date recorded
for length of Service, whereas with the AIS, it is the date they join the
Academy. The ESM proposed that the length of service needed to be rationalised
in line with the practice followed by the Civil Services, as all Officers
leaving the various Academies in the Armed Forces are Graduates and therefore
their service could be counted from the date they pass out of these academies
that could be stipulated.
6.1.2. The so-called disparity in ages of joining respective
services should not be a factor for debate or argument because the
qualifications have been laid down by the Government of India i.e. the age
group and minimum educational qualifications for All India Services and Defence
Forces. Nevertheless, every cadet passing out of NDA is now a Graduate and CDSE
requires only Graduates, just like for the All India Services.
6.1.3. While a Defence Services personnel –OR, JCO or Officer – may
join at a younger age compared to their civilian counterparts, they also
retire/get discharged/superannuate at lesser age(s) commensurate with the rank
attained. On the other hand all civil services employees superannuate at 60
years of age, unless they choose to seek greener pastures earlier.
6.1.4. Ranks in
the Armed Forces be delinked from the Warrant of Precedence, as there is no
commonality with any civil service that have different hierarchical structures.
The governing factor should be length of Service and that alone.
6.2. Allowances
6.2.1. Allowances should be at par with Civil Services employees
i.e. if AIS are entitled to X allowance for service in an area, then the same
amount of allowances should be the entitlement of Defence Personnel.
Also the date of commencement of new allowances for all class of
employees, Civilians or Defence Forces would be the same.
6.2.2. For example Instructional allowances at a certain percentage
is paid to Civil Services and similar allowances should be paid to Defence
Forces personnel. It was suggested that Services HQ should identify the
training institutions where this allowance would be applicable.
6.3. Non-Functional Upgradation
6.3.1. The ESM
emphasised that there was no justification for Armed Forces Officers to be left
out of NFU, that the Sixth CPC had granted to all AIS Officers and Group A
organised Services. They reiterated that pay promotions would have absolutely
no impact on the Command and Control equations that existed in the Armed Forces
and this should be implemented from 1 Jan 2006.
6.3.2. The members of the 7th CPC were shown true
typed copies of the MoD’s replies dated 08 Oct 13 and 30 Dec13 to RTI that MoD
has reviewed recommendation by the Committee of Secretaries in respect of NFU
for Defence Services officers and has “decided to wait” and that the NFU is under
consideration of the Government and hence information cannot be shared,
respectively.
6.3.3. Shri Rae desired that scanned copies of the MoD’s reply may
be emailed to Shri Jayant Sinha, JS to 7 CPC & coordinator for Defence
Services matter. The scanned copies have been mailed to Shri Jayant Sinha on 26
Aug 14.
The meeting ended at 1900 hrs.
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