Speaker hikes LS staff pay,Pranab objects

By an order on September 22,issued through the Lok Sabha Secretary General,the Speaker authorised grant of two advance increments each with effect from April 1 and April 2,2007 to all employees in the revised structure of pay,as a one time measure. The justification given was that this would remove pay anomalies and the expenditure would be borne from the Lok Sabha budget.

Matters,however,came to a head when Rajya Sabha Secretariat employees demanded the same from Vice-President Hamid Ansari who raised the issue with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal as any such financial decision has to be cleared by a joint committee which has representation from both Houses and the Finance Ministry.

The Lok Sabha has some 2,900 employees while the Rajya Sabha has 1,300.

Bansal then took up the matter with Mukherjee who responded on November 17: There appears to be no justification in granting advance increments in the case of those employees who are already in receipt of a substantial amount as special pay for performing their duties. On the recommendations of the sixth CPC central pay commission,the government has granted Military Service Pay to Defence Forces officers and PBORs. However,they have not been granted any advance increments. Hence,the grant of advance increments to the employees of Lok Sabha Secretariat is likely to generate a demand from various other sections of employees of central government and courts etc,to grant them similar benefit.

Mukherjee pointed out that any such decision,according to relevant provisions of the Lok Sabha rules,should have been done after talks with the Finance Ministry. In view of Lok Sabha Secretariat Recruitment amp; Conditions of Service Rules 19558230; the above modification to pay,conditions of service of the Lok Sabha Secretariat employees should have been done by that Secretariat after consultation with the Ministry of Finance. The same has not been done in the instant case. It is learnt that the issue was raised by some Opposition MPs with Ansari at an end-of-the session meeting last week in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They sought to know the reason for Rajya Sabha delaying its decision when Lok Sabha had already implemented the increments.

At this point,sources said,Bansal revealed that he,along with Mukherjee,had already spoken to the Speaker and explained the problems caused by her order. Having already started implementation,Lok Sabha Secretariat is now faced with a difficult question as this is bound to create a budgetary deficit which North Block is in no mood to bridge.

Already,following the sixth pay commission,a joint pay committee was set up for employees of both houses to look into requests. It was decided then that employees will get a monthly special pay ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000 depending on seniority,over and above other allowances for extra work they have to put in at times.

This was expected to have addressed desired concerns but as soon as Meira Kumar became Speaker,sources said,this new step was taken which has upset scales. While rules are clear that the presiding officers of respective Houses have the authority on determining the conditions of employment of the House Staff,any financial decision has to be done in consultation with the Finance Ministry.