Fantastic! The armed forces have decided not to implement the new pay scales (6th Pay Commission) until their demands are met. Here’s Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta’s signal to all ranks on September 24:
In recent times there have been several speculative media reports and disinformation on the final outcome of the sixth pay commission recommendations. The service headquarters have maintained continuous interaction with all authorities concerned and our concerns have been highlighted at the highest levels time and again.
Whilst some of our concerns have been addressed we have been constrained to delay payment of arrears and new pay scales to officers and men in view of some serious disparities that have been introduced which disturb the extant parities between defence officers and those from other central services as also adversely affect pensionary benefits of pbor.
We are in the process of resolving all pending issues and this may take a little longer than we had earlier expected.
Let me assure each one of you that i will spare no effort to bring our genuine concerns to the notice of our country’s leadership with the final aim of giving our personnel their rightful due. In the meanwhile i am certain that one and all will display maturity and patience and not be swayed by hearsay or speculative reports from any quarter. Shano Varuna and Jai Hind.
AT LEAST IT IS BETTER THAN THOSE WHO DOEN’T HAVE JOBS
Attempts by IAS Babus to drive a wedge between Armed Forces officers & PBOR is against National Interest & must be defeated at all costs.Core issues affecting both PBOR & Officers NOW also include (A)Military Service Pay(MSP) applicability from 1,1.2006 with arrears from that date(Babus have fraudulantly made it applicable from 1.9.08) (B)Revision of Grade Pay of various Catagories/Trades of PBOR to equal similarly placed civilians.(C)One Rank One Pension(OROP)Again fraudelently denied by Babus,even though accepted by All political parties & parliamentlry committee.
Also,in the interest of National Security the whole matter of Anti Armed Forces stance & consequent actions of IAS Babus to demoralise Armed Forces personal,incl member secy 6CPC & now expenditure secy FM,needs to be investigated by an indep commission.
I am sad at the state of affairs regarding the defence forces. I am all support for the action taken by defence chiefs. These Chai- biscut types are so caught up in their so called superiority that they push everyone down.
After giving a stupid exam( in some innocuous subject like hindi/english literature or history) which purely relies on rot learning capabilities, these jokers live in so much of air. How come these babus decide these policies that impact the security of this nation.
I am sure this should wake up the concerned people and MMS( although he is lousy and worst ever PM) should have the courage and call the bluff of these babus. Although he had promised to reform the bureaucracy when he became PM.
i am quite surprised none of the political parties have issued any statement on this entire issue. normally they don’t leave any stone unturned in embarrassing the govt. this clearly shows that since we r not vote banks nobody is bothered about us. therefore we all have to learn a big lesson from this whole episode and plan for future. with so much of pressure being mounted by our chiefs, this time the govt/IAS may succumb but in future they will try to come back strongly. we also need to chart out our future plan of action. following comes to my mind as of now, u all may like to improvise/add: –
1. take active participation in elections and all of us should vote at the place of our postings, commanding officers should ensure
2. nobody is the bigger expert on defence matters than the senior generals/admirals/marshals. they should become advisors to govt and replace these babus in mod in a phased manner. we should fight tooth and nail for this. even the national security advisor should be a service officer.
3. we should be more assertive in putting up our demands and should not accept shabby treatment. for example, when the issue of frisking of service chiefs came up, the same was not taken up very strongly.
4. improve facilities for ourselves, like 100% accommodation should be ensured. do not accept the excuse that the sanctioned strength is less than the actual strength. these cases should be pursued actively at mod by service headquarters.
5. we need to accept that our social image has gone down because of our own behaviour in public. common man does not respect a fauji any more because some of us behave rudely in public. our behaviour should be immaculate. but that does not mean we should tolerate non sense.
6. we need to streamline our own systems and be more matured in outlook so that there is overall growth of the services. for example, it took us sixty years to amend 1450 kms wala ltc rule. 5th pay commission authorised personnel with basic pay 12500 (not sure of exact figure) to fly on official duties but we ourselves did not extend it to our majors and equivalents.
7. there should be formal/informal interaction between the various ranks in the three services. for example a motorcycle expedition from army unit to air force unit and so on. this will build tri services camaraderie.
8. we should learn to handle the media effectively in our favour.
we all should put on thinking caps and plan out future and seniors should take the responsibilty of implementing them. otherwise…. we are already facing it….
Hats Off to the Admiral for showing spunk! In the navy they say that as one becomes an Admiral he loses both his balls ( related to the balls on the pennant flown by the admirals on their cars!). However, the chairman COSC has shown to the Armed Forces community that ‘United We Stand’ and there should never be ‘Divided’ as then it would play into the hands of the babus. I am sure whosoever advised the politician that the Fauji would take even this discrimination lying down is getting a thrashing from his political masters. Good Going chief, I am sure every member of the force is giving his best wishes and in the long run this would brove more useful than any ‘governorship’.