Date:12/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/12/stories/2008041260461300.htm

National

Secretaries’ panel to screen report of Pay Commission

Special Correspondent

Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar will head 13-member panel
Defence land in 4 States to be transferred to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the setting up of a 13-member empowered committee of Secretaries for processing the sixth Pay Commission report.

The committee, headed by Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, will mainly function as a panel for screening the commission proposals.

Its final recommendations will be submitted for Cabinet approval, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said here.

To a question, he said no time frame was set for the committee. “The panel would be expected to complete its task as fast as possible so that the Pay Commission report could be implemented at the earliest after Cabinet approval.”

The committee would include the Revenue Secretary, the Expenditure Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Defence Secretary and the Special Secretary, Internal Security, apart from the Secretaries of the Departments of Personnel and Training, Pension and Pensioners Welfare, and Posts.

The Secretaries of the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, and Science and Technology, the Deputy Comptroller and Auditor-General and a Railway Board representative — either the member (staff) or the Financial Commissioner — would also be part of the committee.

The Cabinet also gave its nod for transfer of nine acres of defence land at Akhnoor, Kashmir; 13.56 acres at Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh; 4.9 acres at Kalimpong, West Bengal; and 6.48 acres at Dappar, Punjab, to the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan for setting up schools for children of defence personnel.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired the meeting.

Demonstration

Meanwhile, the Central Secretariat Clerical Services Association members staged a demonstration in protest against the “anomalies created by the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.”

They were demanding inclusion of the Upper Division Clerks (UDCs) in pre-revised scale of Rs.6,800-10,500 and the pay scale of Lower Division Clerks (LDCs) in pre-revised scale of Rs.5,000 to Rs.8,000 be placed in Pay Band 2.