Pay Panel Report To Be Notified Soon, Says Chidambaram

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday said in the Lok Sabha that the government had not taken any policy decision to withhold the fifth pay recommendations for Central government staff and that it would notify it in a day or two after the cabinet had discussed one or two issues that had come up again.

The July 21 decision of the government to implementpay commission recommendations stands, Chidambaram said when agitated members charged the government of postponing the pay recommendations, during the Zero Hour.

Members from the Opposition benches were referring to the Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramaniams remarks to television networks on Monday night that the Government had decided to withhold implementation of the Pay Commission recommendations. He could have said held back instead of saying withheld, which is a rather strong word, the Finance Minister said and refuted Oppositions charge that serious differences had cropped up in the government over the implementation of pay recommendations.

 

While Jaswant Singh of BJP said it was a feeble defence by the Finance Minister, George Fernandes of Samata Party said the minister was misleading the House. Fernandes demanded a House inquiry into the Cabinet Secretarys remarks to the media.

According to Chidambaram, the recommendations were to be notified on Monday but the Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Secretary to hold them back as one or two aspects had to beconsidered by the cabinet, he said.

Chidambaram said these issues, raised by some in the government, are to be brought before the Cabinet slated for later in the evening.

Raising the issue, BJPs Pramod Mahajan, said the Cabinet Secretarys announcement amounted to an insult to Parliament as such policy decisions should never be announced outside when the session was on. Following the Cabinet Secretarys views expressed on television Monday night there was a lot of unrest among government employees about the decision, he said.

and wanted to know whether the government was holding back the implementation for improving on the recommendations.

Jagmohan of BJP and Basudev Acharya of CPI(M) spoke of the wide disparity between the pay scales of the lowest and highest paid employees.