7th Pay Commission: Staff goes on mass casual leave in this state. (PTI)
7th Pay Commission: Several government offices on Wednesday were empty in Imphal, Manipur after employees affiliated to Manipur Government Services Federation went on mass casual leave, demanding implementation of the 7th Pay Commission. General Secretary L Purujit of MGSF while talking to the reporters said it was the,”first phase of agitation” for implementation of the pay commission in the north-east state. He added, employees, workers and teachers voluntarily took the step and asked the co-operation from the state government to achieve the objective in a peaceful manner, as per PTI report. During the state’s Budget Session in July this year, Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar had said that the Manipur government would have to bear an additional burden of Rs 1,700 crore if the 7th Pay Commission was implemented. There are at least 74,000 government employees in the state, Joykumar, who holds the portfolio of finance minister, had said. However, employees not affiliated to the MGSF, did not take part in the mass casual leave.
Notably, right from June after the Narendra Modi government approved the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission on allowances with 34 modifications, which benefited 48 lakh central government employees, there has been a demand by Central government employees to increase their minimum pay. But the big question is – What will be the hike if the government decides to increase the minimum salary. Various media reports in the past have suggested that the minimum pay will be likely Rs 21,000. Now, according to the latest report by OneIndia, it is almost final that the minimum salary will not be hiked to Rs 26,000 as the government is firm on Rs 21,000 as the minimum salary of the Central government employees.
After Tamil Nadu and Gujarat implemented the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission and Modi government extended the benefits of the 7th Pay Commission for the teaching faculty of central and state universities and aided colleges, a number of employees of Central government saw a fresh ray of hope regarding hike in minimum salary.
The minimum pay is expected to go up by 17 percent. Reportedly, after the hike of 17 percent, the fitment factor will also be raised from 2.57 to 3 times. And, thus minimum salary may go up to Rs 21,000 from Rs 18,000.
