COURTESY HT JULY 18

To cut salary bill, Punjab adopts central pay scales for new appointments
Navneet Sharma

navneetsharma@hindustantimes.com

CHANDIGARH : In an effort to cut its salary bill, the cash-strapped Punjab government decided to have new pay scales for all fresh appointments in its departments and other undertakings on the pattern of the Centre.

The new appointees recruited after these instructions will be paid with the recommendations made by the 7th Central Pay Commission as the benchmark. They will not get the benefit of the state pay scales, which have been higher than those of the central government employees.

“The state government has decided that pay scales admissible to all prospective appointments – direct recruitments/compassionate appointment – in any cadre of any administrative department or the entities there under shall not be higher than the pay scale admissible to the said cadre in Centre,” according to instructions issued by the state’s finance department. The instructions, which have been sent to all additional chief secretaries, heads of departments, divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners, are applicable with immediate effect

“For any deviation from the guidelines, the appointing authority and the drawing and disbursing officer will be held personally responsible,” reads the letter. The health department has already set the ball rolling for recruitment to 3,854 posts, including medical officers, pharmacists, staff nurses, dialysis technicians, operation theatre assistants and ward attendants as per the new pay scales. The government has also announced more recruitment in the police force.

The new pay scales have been introduced after a 20-member task force set up by the state government under former chief secretary KR Lakhanpal to devise an exit strategy from the lockdown, had, in its report in April this year, recommended the freezing of dearness allowance and drawn attention towards the high pay scales in the state.

“Haryana pays salaries equivalent to the Centre whereas Punjab pays about 25% more without any justification,” it said, suggesting that the 6th State Pay Commission may be requested to keep this in view while recommending pay revision.

The three-member pay panel headed by former chief secretary JS Gill is in the process of “finalising” its report. The present government had, in its white paper presented in 2017, also touched upon this issue, stating that the average salary of the Punjab government employees is much higher as compared to the other states and even the Government of India.

The hefty committed liabilities on salary, pension and retirement benefits have been a cause for worry in the debt-stressed state. Of the state’s revenue receipts of ₹88,004 crore as per the budget estimates for the current fiscal, 45% was to go into meeting this expenditure alone. All these estimates have gone for a toss due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the state revenues hard and the government has had to depend on market borrowing.

The finance department’s instructions, even though these will be applicable to only fresh appointments, have made the employees’ leaders wary about the government’s intentions. Sanjha Mulazam Morcha convener Sukhchain Singh Khehra, while opposing the decision, said the pay scales were kept higher due to high inflation rate and better standard of living as compared to other states, but there have been suggestions by some to lower them for all employees