Officers of the rank of Director General of Police have now joined the long list of government employees unhappy with the Sixth Pay Commission recommendation.
It’s not just low pay but a lowering of grade, which is troubling the men in uniform, who have even petitioned the Home Minister.
According to the Commission’s recommendations, state DGP-rank officers’ salaries will be at least 20 per cent less than their Central Paramilitary forces counterparts, both having put in the same number of years.
If the Commissions recommendations are accepted:
State DGPs will earn Rs 67, 000 rupees per month
Whereas their BSF or CRPF counterparts could earn Rs 80, 000 rupees a month
“The five DGPs in the CPOs were put in the apex pay band of Rs 80,000, but the DGs of the state will never reach that apex pay band the way their scale has been put by the Commission. So naturally threes a lot of heartburning because the issues which the DGPs in the state are kind of law and order problems of naxalism and terrorism they are facing today are in no way any less than what the DGPs of the CPMF are facing,” Secretary Central IPS Association Manjari Jaruhar explains.
Difference in pay is not the only problem. The Central IPS Association has also petitioned the government for its 500 DIG level officers, all of whom have now been put in a lower scale.
The Home Ministry says it realises the seriousness of the situation.
"We will seriously consider the matter and take take appropriate steps so that out police officers don’t get demoralised,” Minister of State for Home Affairs Shriprakash Jaiswal assures.
A final view is yet to be taken on the matter, but with the increasing challenges faced by the state police, the government needs to ask itself if it should let differences of pay affect the functioning of its force across departments.
source:ibnlive
