Letters: All work, no pay

A K Bhattacharya's column, "FM's wage bill worries" (New Delhi Diary, June 10) has aptly observed that the process of government recruitment results in an exodus of talent at the top due to the meagre salaries they get, in comparison to what the private sector pays to people with a similar profile. In contrast, the employees at lower levels get paid a lot in comparison to private sector workers who put in more in terms of time and effort. As suggested by the writer, all previous governments ignored recommendations for staff rationalisation and downsizing manpower, and only implemented salary revisions. The cumulative effect of all this will have to be borne by the current government, with its fiscal consolidation plans going haywire with the consequences. So, what should the finance minister (FM) do? The FM is in the most comfortable position - with the general elections a good four years away - to perform a surgical operation to undo the sins of the past governments.

An interesting observation about the erstwhile Soviet Union: "They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work." With the Soviet Union gone, the later part of pretence is all-pervasive in government services - state or central. The current government should make all new entrants' services guaranteed only for 15 years and thereafter only competent and deserving employees should be retained on a five-year contract.

Naresh Saxena New Delhi

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