In a move to bring parity with Central government employees, the cabinet committee of Odisha (Orissa) on Sunday (Dec 14) approved the Fitment Committee’s proposal to hike the salary of state government employees that include regular, grant in aid employees and pensioners, by an average of hefty 36% as against their current salary.
The cabinet committee chaired by the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik decided to grant this revised salary from December 01, 2008; however, this would be effective from January 01, 2006. As much as nearly 3.97 lakh state government employees and 30,479 employees of educational institutions receiving 100% grant in aid will be benefited from this new salary hike, official sources said.
The beneficiaries will get the 40% part of the arrears– the difference of the revised salary and received salary- of last 36 months in cash in three installments with the salary of December 2008, and January and February 2009 while remaining 60% of arrears will be given in the next fiscal 2009-10, sources informed.
The hike of this salary would put an additional burden on state exchequer of Rs.2,100-crore in terms of revised salary and pensions annually. The state exchequer would have to bear the extra burden of Rs.1,400 for salary hike and Rs.700-crore for rise in pension per year.
For paying the total approved salary with arrears, government has estimated to make a total compound bill of Rs.6,300-crore (Rs.4,200-crore for salary and Rs.2,100-crore for pensions).
According to the revised salary structure, the increment in minimum pay band would be 30.39% to 36.35 percent% translating Rs.4,000 to Rs.5,000 while in the higher pay band the raise in the salary would be between 39.25% to 62.25% translating Rs. 5,500 to Rs. 9,000, sources said.
Besides, the state government employees will get maximum three assured promotion at 15 years, 25 years and 30 years of job depending upon the service record of a particular employee, sources added. In addition, now the employee will get the authority of claiming full pension after completing the 25-year of job term as against the current 33-year.
The House Rent Allowance (HRA) for Bhubaneswar and Cuttack employees, which population is over 5 lakh, has been raised to 20% of their basic salaries while the employees of remaining cities and towns would get HRA of 10% of their basic.
In the approved pay revision; the gratuity limit has been extended from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh while the pay scale bands have been compressed from the existing 28 categories to only five categories.
For solving any grievances in terms of pay fixation and revision, government has set up an anomalies committee, which would look after all the cases.
Earlier in August, the Central Government had decided to approve the proposals of Sixth Pay Commission, which would be effective from January 01, 2006 and Central Government employees would get their first revised salary in December, 2008.
Later, several state governments, including Odisha government had set up a Fitment Committee to study and revise the recommendation of sixth pay commission according to state’s financial status.
The Odisha government had set up a Fitment Committee chaired by Development Commissioner R N Bahidar that submitted its report last month.
The quick implementation of this Fitment Committee reports indicates that Naveen Patnaik’s government is preparing to woo the state employees viewing the forthcoming elections, as the analysts believe.
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