Bihar Results To Push Seventh Pay Commission Implementation

New Delhi: With the BJP-led NDA getting trounced in Bihar assembly polls, is likely to push the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission in April, a move seen by many as a major sop ahead of five state elections in May.

In Bihar, the Grand Alliance of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress won 178 seats in the 243-member assembly.

The Prime Minister Modi’s party carried out the same campaign strategy as it had done during the disastrous February Delhi polls, ironically, with the same humiliating results.

After it swept the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP faced a major defeat in Delhi and Bihar State elections, party strategists say the party paid a heavy price because of government employees’ worries with inflation.

The Narendra Modi government’s anti-government employees’ decisions also upset government employees, a central government employees’ union leader said.

“We realised that government employees are upset as it is becoming difficult for them to manage their household expenses with the high inflation rate. They were clearly against us not to merge 50 percent dearness allowance with basic pay before implementation of Seventh Pay Commission,” a central minister told us.

“There was a sense of insecurity among government employee who feared the media rumours that the pay commission is planning to recommend the retirement age of government employees as the completion of 33 years of service, or at the age of 58, whichever comes first. We want to prove the false media rumours to implement pay commission soon,” said the minister.

Accordingly, Central government will implement the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission in April after fund allocation in budget 2016-17, which will be possible pre-election “special packages” for Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, which are all due for polls by May 2016.

The Seventh Pay Commission, which was set up by the UPA government, was required to submit its report by August-end.

The government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modifications.

The Commission has already completed discussions with various stakeholders, including organisations, federations, groups representing civil employees as well as Defence services and is in the process of finalising its recommendations.