The State government last week issued 24 orders, revising the pay scales of a section of its employees as per the recommendations of the Pay Grievance Redressal Committee (PGRC), 2019. While one section stood to gain with more pay, another alleged lack of transparency and lopsidedness in the process. However, Finance Department officials denied any bias and said all representations were taken into account.
Overlooked
The ones that gained the most are those in the Revenue and Police Departments, as they get a special pay of about ₹2,600, while employees in many other categories claim their rightful representations were overlooked.
“All the G.O.s were issued based on the recommendations of the PGRC headed by retired High Court judge Justice D. Murugesan. But, why has the PGRC report not been made public as yet?” asked an employee.
The PGRC constituted by the State government following a Supreme Court order in December was supposed to look into the anomalies in only 52 categories. However, the committee went beyond the terms of reference, alleged an employee.
Since the PGRC called all associations irrespective of whether they were part of the litigation in the Supreme Court, naturally there was more expectations, he said.
Tamil Nadu Government Employees’ Association general secretary M. Anbarasu claimed the G.O.s would result in further anomalies since the recommendations of the one-man commission by IAS officer M.A. Siddique are yet to be made public and implemented. “What if these recommendations (Justice Murugesan) are contrary to one-man commission’s?” he asked.
The pay scales of those in posts such as Inspector of Survey & Land Records and Deputy Inspector of Survey & Land Records were earlier on a par with that of those in Revenue, Rural Development and Police Departments, but not so now. These posts have been downgraded and the PGRC too did not look into this issue, claimed another.
The ‘Number Statement’ containing the total number of postings along with pay scales in all departments are not being made public by the Finance Department anymore and it leads to a lack of transparency, he pointed out. “At the most, there should be just 10 levels when there was only about that many educational qualifications,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Secretariat Association (TANSA) president S. Peter Antonysamy said: “We are hopeful that our demand to revise the pay scale of Assistant Section Officers and Deputy Secretaries would be solved at the earliest by the Chief Minister.”
When contacted, a senior official in the Finance Department said: “There has to be an end to all their representations. It was only based on their pleas, the issue went to the Supreme Court and the State government constituted the PGRC. Only based on the committee’s recommendations, we have issued G.O.s. Now, they can’t keep on giving representations. There has to be a finality to all these.”
