Shadow Correspondent
JAMMU, APR 24:
In a major decision, the state cabinet that met here today under the chairpersonship of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti approved implementation of 7th pay commission recommendations for state government employees and pensioners with effect from January 2016.
The decision would benefit around five lakh employees and pensioners in the state. The financial implications for the implementations of 7th pay commission recommendations would be Rs 4201 crore annually while financial implications on account of one-time arrears would be Rs 7477 crores.
The State government employees can now draw the salary for the month of April 2018 as per the revised scales. According to the decision, for the purpose of implementation of 7th Pay Commission Recommendations, basic pay as on 31.12.2015 of employees shall be multiplied by uniform factor of 2.57 and then adjusted in the matrix recommended by the Pay Committee.
The benefit of House Rent Allowance on revised pay shall be available from April, 2018 and all allowances except Dearness Allowance (DA) shall continue as before while DA from January, 2016 onwards shall be paid on revised pay on new rates to be notified by Finance Department.
According to the decision, Gratuity shall be enhanced from the existing ceiling of 10.00 lakh to 20.00 lakh with effect from 01.01.2016, with increase in the ceiling on gratuity by 25 percent whenever DA rises by 50 percent as recommended by 7th CPC/ as per Central Government pattern.
The pensioners shall be given option to choose revision of pension by any of the two formulations suggested by the Pay Committee.
Arrears of pensioners shall be paid in cash in three six monthly instalments while arrears of all employees shall be drawn and credited to their G.P Fund accounts with moratorium of 3 years for withdrawal of same. However, there will be no moratorium for withdrawal in case of employees retiring upto 31.03.2021.
The implementation of 7th pay commission recommendations for PSUs and autonomous organizations will depend on the availability of resources with the respective organizations.
Regarding pay anomalies, the cabinet decided that the existing Pay Committee shall look into and address the issue of anomalies starting with the issue of anomalies of the Clerical Cadre.
The cabinet also approved a slew of administrative reforms to streamline the functioning at various levels in the government. These measures include increasing working days and working hours for government business, putting in place system of automatic abolition of posts which are not filled for 3 years, establishment audit of all offices needs to be expedited to work out norms for optimal sanctioned strength of employees in all offices/ Departments across the State, making of illegal appointments of whatsoever nature (whether regular, adhoc or casual) by any officer be treated as major offence, Visitor Management System, particularly in Civil Secretariat to be streamlined, Drawl of pay by Drawing and Disbursing Officers in all offices to be linked to Biometric Attendance and objective assessment of skills & competencies required to be made.
