The Hindu Business Line : Any govt decision on pay issue will be good for country: Army

NEW DELHI: As the committee headed by External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee is looking into the armed forces' grievances over their new pay scales, the army on Wednesday said any decision by the government on the issue will be for the good of th e country and the Services.

“The pay anomalies issues are currently with the Cabinet and I am sure it will take care of it. Whatever it decides, it will be for the good of the country and the armed forces,'' Vice-Chief of the Army, Lieutenant-General M L Naidu, said on the sideline s of an Army Postal Service Awards ceremony here.

“They (the committee members) are our national leaders and they will keep all issues in mind before taking a decision. It (pay issues) is not a matter of our expectations,'' Gen. Naidu said, replying to a query on the course of action the armed forces wo uld take if all their expectations are not met by the Mukherjee committee.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh had late last month set up the Mukherjee committee with Defence Minister, Mr A K Antony and Finance Minister, Mr P Chidambaram as members to consider the four “core issues'' raised by the armed forces on what they ca lled a “discriminatory'' 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) report.

In fact, the issues had snowballed into a controversy over the armed forces' reluctance to implement the Cabinet decision on the CPC taken last month. Consequently, the 1.5 million armed forces personnel took home their old pay scales in October, while their 3.5 million civilian counterparts got their revised pay scales under the CPC. - PTI

Prev: Anil Ambani meets Finance Minister
Next: US companies quit IAF's attack helicopter bids

Business Line | NUS Index |