Chandigarh: The Punjab government on Thursday again extended the term of the 6th Pay Commission to submit its report by March 31. The pay commission has failed to submit its report even after over five years of its constitution in 2016. The state government had given the last extension to the commission in December last year and it was to submit its report to the government by February 28.
Neighbouring Haryana had announced implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission in October 2016. The Punjab government, during the SAD-BJP regime, had constituted the 6th Pay Commission in February 2016 by appointing retired chief secretary R S Mann as its chairman. After the incumbent Congress government came to power in March 2017, Mann resigned from the post. The Congress government then appointed retired 1968-batch IAS officer and former chief secretary Jai Singh Gill as head of the commission in April 2017.
Now it is possible : Gill
Asked as to what resulted in so much delay in submission of the pay commission report, Gill told TOI, “Its obvious whatever has to happen will happen with its time. This is routine and nothing more than that. Sometimes you want to write something and you require more information which gets delayed.”
To a question whether the employees can be sure this time that the commission is finally going to submit the report by March 31, Gill said, “Yes. Of course. Now it is possible.” He further added, “The government has given this extension and we cannot embarrass the government. Certainly there would be something.”
Asked does not he think that five years time is too much for a pay commission to finish its task, Gill replied, “Look at other commissions in other states as to how much time they take.” He explained that it was “very detailed work” and the commission was dependent for the information to come from various departments of the government as the commission did not have database of its own.
Punjab Employees on Hunger Strike
Punjab and UT employees’ joint front convener Sukhchain Singh Khaira told TOI, “On one side, Punjab government says its coffers are empty, on the other they extend the term of pay commission and paying its staff.” He added the employees unions were sitting on hunger strike at district headquarter level in all 22 districts of the state from March 2 till March 10 seeking release of pay commission recommendations at the earliest. The employees are also demanding release of their three pending instalments of 16% dearness allowance and arrears of the dearness allowance ranging from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh per employee.