SALARY HIKE

tures with those in the central government. “The new scales will be implemented from July 1 as already announced and payment of arrears will have to be phased out,” he said, pegging the expected overall financial implications at Rs 35,000 crore.

Though finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal after presenting his budget for financial year 2021-22 had stated that he factored in Rs 9,000 crore for the pay and pension hike, there are serious questions about the ability to state to raise resources for bearing such a huge financial implication.

The finance department will examine the various implications before submitting the report to the cabinet for further action.

Sanjha Mulazam Morcha convener Sukhchain Singh Khehra, who has been leading a protest for the past two years against the delay in pay revision, said they would not comment without studying the report.

Fate of 2011 pay revision uncertain

“The official statement talks about rationalisation of 2011 revision in pay scales. If they have based the new scales on those implemented from 2006, then many employees won’t gain much. In case the recommended scales are based on revision done in 2011, there will be complications relating to employees whose salaries were not increased at that time and they would seek parity,” he said.

The CMO spokesperson said that a significant hike has been recommended in the report in pensions and dearness allowance, while fixed medical allowance and death-cum-retirement gratuity are recommended to be doubled under the scheme suggested by the pay panel.

While fixed medical allowance has been recommended to be doubled to Rs 1,000/- per month for employees as well as pensioners uniformly, the maximum limit of death-cum-retirement gratuity is proposed to be enhanced from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.