Is Pay Fixation as complex as Rocket Science?

Dear Friend,
Given below is the dossier of the 6th Pay commission

23 March 2008 The Pay Commission submits its report. The member secretary and all officers in the Secretariat of the commission are civil servants. No representative from the armed forces.

22 Aug 2008 The Service Chiefs protest. A committee of 11 secretaries (all IAS) is constituted to look into the problem areas. The report of this committee is not made public. But the government issues the Gazette notification containing the resolution of the GoI, to implement the report of the Commission.

30 Aug 2008 The service chiefs have reservations, and submit four 'core issues' and request the government to modify the resolution before issuing the Service Instructions.

7 Oct 2008 The Service Chiefs are told that the Core issues are being 'examined' by the government and that the service instructions need not await their resolution. The press accuses the Services of being 'undisciplined' The Pay Cells are directed to send draft instructions to the government immediately. These are modified by the civil servants and issued on 11 and 14 Oct 2008.

11 and 12 Nov 2008 The government orders relating to pensions are issued. These are not even shown to the Pay Cells before issue. The veterans protest through rallies and hunger strikes.

11 Dec 2008 The first set of 'amendments' are issued. These confuse the issues further.

20 Jan 2009 A second set of amendments are issued. By now, the banks are so confused that they admit whatever they think is right. And if an officer shouts, they yield. The letter dated 11 Nov has 80 pages of 'tables' but none which gives a summary of the amounts which must be paid as arrears or the revised pension. The present position is extremely interesting. It is a free for all. 'Might is right' Who ever can shout louder carries the day.

During my long years in the South Block, I have never seen confusion so confounded. The civil servants used to proudly say, "Col sahib, we civil servants have passed an examination for which more than three lakh candidates apply. And less than a few hundred are finally selected". They gave me to believe that none of us was good enough to crack that test. And I believed them. But the proof of the pudding is in its eating. The kind of staff work they have produced this time is atrocious. Gen Sunderji would have said, "If you invite specialists from the Harvard Business School and ask them to produce a set of instructions more confusing or anomalous than these, and give them three years to do that, they may fail to do so!"

On my part, I am willing to take a bet that if the job is given to one Col assisted by three majors, they will resolve the issue in two weeks flat. I am led to believe that even if we grant it to them that the entrance to the civil services is tough, the fact of the matter is that once they enter, it is cake walk thereafter. A very senior industrialist had mooted the following proposal,
"Let the civil servants be selected as they are screened now. But the posts of Joint Secretaries and above should be thrown open to every one. Let there be another competitive examination for all Indians who have held responsible positions and let the best men and women be chosen for the higher government offices"

Indeed, no one in the government took this suggestion seriously. In fact the civil servants are very possessive of their powers. They do not let any one else enter the special arena which they assiduously protect. Be it equipment procurement or financial control, they insist that the last word must be theirs. If the performance during the implementation of the Pay Commission is any indication, it needs no further proof as a testimony of their skills and prowess. With the computers at their disposal, could they not have issued comprehensive table to help the banks in crediting the right amounts for all pensioners? Is that some kind of a rocket science?

I think time has come for the services to seek their rightful place in the decision making chains. And if the civil servants deny them that, they shall be doing so at their own peril, and the consequences could be disastrous for the nation.

As for now, I say with firm conviction : There will be at least three more amendments to the pension orders during the next six months. And after that there will be court cases. This prophesy needs no crystal ball to gaze into.

And, of course the issue of grade pays for relative seniority's will be referred to yet another 'high powered committee' Indeed, by now since they have run out of 'high powered men' they may have to seek help from 'experts' from another planet!

Regards, and God save us!
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)

PS
In the undivided Punjab there used to be ragamuffins who used to come over and say,
"Na khedna e, na khedan dena e. Te khutti mal naal bhar devni e"
(I am neither going to play; nor let you play. And I am going to soil the ground, so that no one can play.) The present situation is a lot like that...