Service chiefs meet Parrikar, discuss Pay Commission report

Concerned over increasing pay disparity between defence personnel and their civilian counterparts, the three Service Chiefs today met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and discussed issues related to "anamolies and shortcomings" in the 7th Pay Commission report.
The service chiefs had earlier written to Parrikar highlighting various aspects of the Pay Commission report which the military felt was a "let down".
"The three Chiefs had detailed, comprehensive and constructive discussion on the issue," defence sources said.
The armed forces' personnel are of the view that if the Pay Commission report is implemented in its present form, it will position them much below their civilian counterparts in terms of salaries, facilities and status, the sources said.

One of the main issues that the armed forces face is with regard to the "risk-hardship matrix" dealing with the allowances for posting in difficult areas.
The government had recently set up a 13-member Empowered Committee of Secretaries (CoS) headed by the Cabinet Secretary for processing the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission, which has bearing on remuneration of 47 lakh central government employees and 52 lakh pensioners.

Navy chief Admiral RK Dhowan was the first among the three service chiefs to officially comment on the Pay Commission report.
"Whatever we feel are the shortcomings are being taken up by the three services with the Ministry of Defence to see that whatever we feel is necessary for our men, our officers, our civilians, is made available to them," Dhowan had said earlier.

Besides, having discussions on the 7th Pay Commission, the chiefs and the Defence Minister also held deliberations on the issue of One-Rank-One-Pension (OROP).