Top IPS officers knock govt's door on salary issues

In a unique case, some top IPS officers heading important posts of border security, intelligence and investigation have moved the government claiming "anomalies" in their salary packages, which they contend, lower their dignity and morale.
The officers have been bracketed in the second top pay scale of Rs 75,500-Rs 80,000 as compared to the highest salary of Rs 80,000 fixed pay scale, despite they being the top police officers in the country as either being Directors General (DGs) of paramilitary forces or being the senior-most in the serving ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS).
Those affected include two DGs, Border Security Force (BSF) chief D K Pathak and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) head B D Sharma, NIA DG Sharad Kumar, two Special Directors in the Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain and Surender Singh and National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) DG R R Verma.

While 1978-batch Bihar cadre officer Verma is the seniormost among these officers, National Investigation Agency chief Kumar is of the 1979-batch, the two IB officers are of the 1980-batch while for Pathak (1979) and Sharma (1980), the government rules stipulate that DGs of central paramilitary forces will get Rs 80,000 fixed salaries.
Sources said while some officers have made written representations to the Union Home Ministry, some have "verbally" made their grievance known to the top security establishment including former Home Secretary Anil Goswami and his successor L C Goyal.
"The officials have made their grievances known to the government. This has never happened earlier. Their cases are being actively processed," a source in the Home Ministry privy to the development said.