Unacceptable package

FOUR YEARS after the report of the Fifth Pay Commission, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force are yet to accept the pay and allowances package the Pay Commission devised for them in full, because of the anomalies in the pay package. The Anomalies Committee, headed by the former defence secretary, Mr. Ajit Kumar, and the three Vice-Chiefs failed to break the impasse. The matter was then referred to the Cabinet Secretary, and three chiefs of staff, but again no satisfactory way out was found. Eventually a group of Ministers (GoM) headed by the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, with the Ministers of Defence and Finance deliberated on the matter, but not all the grievances were redressed.

Based on the recommendations of the GoM, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced revised salaries and allowances for the armed forces in March. The revised scales for salaries and allowances were officially notified on February 29 and the Naval Headquarters issued an order for their implementation on March 2. The Army and the Air Force Headquarters have not issued similar orders, giving rise to the speculation about disquiet within the armed forces about the revised scales. The Navy has also put the orders on hold to keep in step with the Army and the IAF that had not taken any follow up action.

The revised allowances mark an increase over the pay package awarded by the Fourth Pay Commission. The flying allowance, for instance, has been hiked from Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 7,000 a month for pilots in the ranks of squadron leaders to group captains, flying officers and equivalent will receive Rs. 4,500, flight lieutenants and equivalents Rs. 3,500 and the air commodores and equivalent will receive Rs. 5,500. This has been done because a large number of pilots are going out on premature retirement to join the greener pastures of civil airlines.

The allowances in some categories, however, do not mark a substantial increase over the recommendations made by the Fifth Pay Commission. Risk related allowances have also been graded on the basis of rank and seniority of personnel.

The pay package initially recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission in 1997 had not been implemented due to misgivings in the services over risk related allowances especially, allowances paid to pilots, submariners, and soldiers engaged in counter- insurgency operations or serving in extremely difficult high altitude areas such as Siachen and Kargil. Personnel engaged in counter-insurgency operations will receive according to the notification Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 3,900 a month depending on their ranks and the risks.

Altitude allowance

The high altitude allowance for the personnel serving on the Siachen glacier and now Kargil would vary from Rs. 1,600 to Rs. 400, depending on the rank and the altitude at which the personnel are deployed. For officers up to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, the risk allowances range from Rs. 1,620 to Rs. 4,200 depending upon the risk and the rank structure. Similarly Naval personnel serving in submarines and marine commandos will receive allowances ranging from Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 3,500 according to rank and seniority, the notification said. The army strongly feels that the officers serving in Siachen and Kargil should also receive Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 4,000 according to their rank structure.

The combined expenditure on pay and allowances of the defence services adds up to Rs. 13,500 crores in this budget itself. Once all the Pay Commission allowances are accepted, this figure will swell further.

It is understood that the armed forces have deliberately refrained from lodging formal protests as that would be interpreted as defiance. They hope that their non-implementation of the notification would serve to have the matter reviewed. For the present, both the Government and the Service headquarters appear to be anxious to avoid an open confrontation, but unless formal moves are made in one direction or the other, the stalemate will have an unhealthy impact.

The Pay Commission award is for ten years and in the case of the services, about four years have already elapsed. This reflects on the attitude of the present Government towards the armed forces.

The three service chiefs met the Prime Minister recently to protest against the ambiguities in their pay and allowances and the unfair equation between the services and the civil bureaucracy. The Prime Minister has referred the matter back to the GoM, who have promised to look into the whole issue afresh. So far, nothing has happened.

The problem of pay and allowances relates as much to civil- military parity as it does to intra-service problems. For instance, for the purposes of pay and allowances, in the Pay Commission, a Lieutenant General in the army is treated at par with a Director General of Police (DGP). Yet in small towns, particularly in the insurgency-ridden North-East, meetings called by the Corps Commander - a Lieutenant General - are usually attended by an additional DGP, which creates serious operational problems. This is one of the reasons why insurgency has not come under control in Jammu and Kashmir.

There is also a problem in equating civilians and military people below officer rank (PBOR). The parity of powers and pay between the civilian Havaldar and military Naik is skewed. This applies to the Air Force and the Navy as well. There is anomaly in their pensions also.

The Air Force had serious problems in accepting the Pay Commission's recommendations relating to flying allowances. There was a near mutiny in the IAF two years ago when a distinction was sought to be made between pilots flying combat and non-combat aircraft, and technical officers and non-technical officers. The submarine allowance for the naval officers was also in controversy. The high altitude and hazardous allowance for troops stationed in Siachen and Kargil need to be sorted out. They are demanding pay parity with the IAF combat pilots, because they are not doing less dangerous jobs in sub-zero temperatures.

The real problem in the services is the declining status of the officers over the years compared to IAS and IPS officers. Today, while a joint secretary put in 15 to 17 years of service to reach that rank, the Pay Commission treats him at par with a Major General with 32 years of service. It is the same case with the pay and allowances of other officers and jawans.

Col. P. K. VASUDEVA

(The author, retired colonel, is Senior Research Fellow at the Strategic Research Centre, Chandigarh.)

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