On Friday, 22 March 2019 22:48:25 IST, Stanley OLeary oleary_alan@yahoo.com[VeteransIndia] <VeteransIndia@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Dear Sirs,
I watched with interest, the arguments of three of our Veterans, Lt General Syed Hasnain, Col Ajai Shukla and Col Amardeep, as also an ex bureaucrat,Shri CM Vasudev. I will focus on correcting what has been said in the first instance and then suggest a Way Ahead on this issue.All three of our Veterans spoke so well,however there are some issues that need to be carefully considered.
2. General Syed Hasnain has very correctly pointed out, that since independence,the Armed Forces had cocooned themselves on matters of pay.This was done in my opinion, hoping, that by so doing, their pay prospects will be looked after.I would like to add, that this was a grave fault line and successive pay commissions did us down and the Government never really addressed the anomalies that were brought out by the Armed Forces Pay Cells. OROP was one exception that made a big difference, even if it is a truncated award. I would however, like to correct the General that the Armed Forces were never offered NFU in the Sixth CPC and hence there was no question of refusing it. Since I was heading the Pay Cells at that time as Chairman PARC,The Pay Commission gave the Services the Sixth CPC report on 24 Mar 2008.Reading about NFU for the civil servants and excluding the Services came as a great shock and after briefing the Chief's,on 25 Apr 2008,a letter signed by the CNS as Chairman COSC, addressed to the RM sought NFU for the Services, too. MSP that came into being in the Sixth CPC was nothing in comparison to NFU.The Govt,which was essentially the Min of Finance and the MoD, the former, headed by Shri PC Chidambaram and the latter, by Shri AK Anthony,did not agree.I may add, that all the Officers at the helm of the Sixth CPC had been appointed to the Finance Ministry and therefore they were adamant that this would not come through.We continued our fight and brought Colonels and Brigadiers, into PB 4 (SAG grade).When Commandants, of the para military were brought into PB 4,Lt Col's too were brought in,consequent to a long drawn out fight and a presentation made, to Mr Pranab Mukherjee.(early Nov 2008) I once again found mischief in the dispensation given to Lt Col's with a Grade Pay of Rs 8000,when there was no reason for them not to be given the same as Commandants of the PMF, ie Rs 8700,since this group in the Fifth CPC had a lower scale than that of a Lt Col.The Services should have stood their ground instead of giving in.This was a fatal mistake.I demitted the post of Chairman PARC in Dec 2008 and I later learnt that the Services subsequently did not force the NFU issue OR worse, rescinded their claim. I may also add, that what the Services did decline although offered by the Government, was PRIS (Performance related incentive Scheme)This is another sad story ,but I will not delve on this, for the moment. 3.Colonel Ajai Shukla was spot on in his recommendations and understanding of the Subject,however I disagree with him that NFU could be substituted for allowances.While in the Service, I cried hoarse, that nothing, could be more off the mark.Pay cannot be substituted by allowances and should never be agreed to .Successive Pay Commissions, have at the behest of the bureaucracy, done this to distract and give us a raw deal.Pay is the ground reality of Status.Pay goes beyond the serving tenure well into retirement and since we have truncated careers this is most relevant to us. NFU,I agree, is not what the Services asked for,but would it be fair if a bureaucrat who for any reason does not make the selection criteria for promotion to the post of Joint Secretary and then gets a double promotion to the Additional Secretary grade ,above that of the select rank of Maj General equivalent?This is very serious, as this would continue for the life of the Officers so affected.Here I am not talking of the IAS alone but all Group A services. 4. I am afraid that I was very surprised to hear the responses of Shri CM Vasudeva. He even stated that promotions in the Civil Services were merit based and there were stops at all levels even for the IAS. The fact is, that all IAS Officers will eventually retire in the Apex scale holding posts of either Special Secretary or Secretary.Other Group A services will all get pay promotions to the Addl Secy grade (HAG) In fact this is defined in the NFU clause as repeatedly brought out by the Veterans.The ones that do not make it, are those whose promotion is kept in a sealed envelope (in other words,cases pending against them)What is more surprising is that this false statement,is being bandied about by the IAS lobby, in order to make us chew the cud.They are even approaching very senior retired Officers to help them quell the fire brewing.I must say that whatever we achieve has to be by peaceful means,as we are all loyal citizens and patriots,perhaps the best in the country and that is what we should always remain.One brilliant ex bureaucrat once called me aside and told me that she cannot understand our stances, as the country at large ,holds us in very high regard,unlike the bureaucracy.Perhaps ,that is why we need to pay a cost. 5. Back to NFU. It is in the public domain,that even the para military forces have been given NFU. Can any Govt do this to their Armed Forces?Why would any one want to join the Army, if his pay and pension and indeed his truncated service career, is far below the police and the paramilitary. I do not say promote everybody,but there is no reason why our pay and pension prospects are reduced below that of the civil services. In the case of our OR's,repeatedly every Pay Commission has echoed a sentiment that they should be given other Government jobs,but no Govt has even looked their way after the dust has settled on the Commission's report.Everybody knows that a Jawan in his mid 30's is retired to get a pension of 50% of his pay.This is when his filial responsibilities are at its height.6. A long time ago, I had written an article on NFU. where I had brought out the promotional disparities between the Armed Forces and the Civil Services.Perhaps that needs to be re circulated.7. Lastly and this is very important.We in the Armed Forces bank on Pay Commissions to remedy the fault lines,however this is never done as their charter does not encompass this.Most of the upheavals (raising their status for civil services) is done between Pay Commissions,who, later ratify the change.I will give one example.An IG of Police is in accordance with the protocol of the Government of India is equal to a Brigadier.In our Embassies abroad,a Lt Colonel or DIG posted in the Embassy is at par with a First Secretary. Yet both these posts have adjusted their status much above their protocol levels and also their Grade Pays.Thus today an IG gets the same Grade Pay as a Major General.When I brought this to the notice of the Ministries post the Sixth CPC,all they had to say that Grade Pays were pertinent as benchmarks within a Service and not across all services.But this has not been implemented in spirit.For those who do not know, I would also like to state that,the Armed Forces Officer cadre is the first named even before the IAS,as a Group A service.I am writing this,as a number of times a falsity is promulgated that the Armed Forces Officer is a Commissioned Officer and not a Group A ..Officer. In conclusion, we have cases in the Armed Forces where pay is delinked from rank.AMC officers reach the Apex grade as Colonels.Now, though NPA is an allowance,this is given to them, in their pension.Also the Lt General grade is divided into two by status and protocol and yet there are no command and control problems. NFU too, could be factored in for the other Officers,without any Status change.We cannot be left behind for no apparent reason and this time, in the Seventh CPC the Chief's have supported the grant of NFU to Armed Forces Officers.As is well known.the Chairman 7th CPC recorded his opinion that if NFU is continued for the Civil Services then the Forces should not be left out.Two other members suggested that NFU be scrapped totally.Both these recommendations were ignored and a status quo prevails. Regards, Rear Admiral Alan O'Leary(Retd)
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Dear Sirs,
I watched with interest, the arguments of three of our Veterans, Lt General Syed Hasnain, Col Ajai Shukla and Col Amardeep, as also an ex bureaucrat,Shri CM Vasudev. I will focus on correcting what has been said in the first instance and then suggest a Way Ahead on this issue.All three of our Veterans spoke so well,however there are some issues that need to be carefully considered.
2. General Syed Hasnain has very correctly pointed out, that since independence,the Armed Forces had cocooned themselves on matters of pay.This was done in my opinion, hoping, that by so doing, their pay prospects will be looked after.I would like to add, that this was a grave fault line and successive pay commissions did us down and the Government never really addressed the anomalies that were brought out by the Armed Forces Pay Cells. OROP was one exception that made a big difference, even if it is a truncated award. I would however, like to correct the General that the Armed Forces were never offered NFU in the Sixth CPC and hence there was no question of refusing it. Since I was heading the Pay Cells at that time as Chairman PARC,The Pay Commission gave the Services the Sixth CPC report on 24 Mar 2008.Reading about NFU for the civil servants and excluding the Services came as a great shock and after briefing the Chief's,on 25 Apr 2008,a letter signed by the CNS as Chairman COSC, addressed to the RM sought NFU for the Services, too. MSP that came into being in the Sixth CPC was nothing in comparison to NFU.The Govt,which was essentially the Min of Finance and the MoD, the former, headed by Shri PC Chidambaram and the latter, by Shri AK Anthony,did not agree.I may add, that all the Officers at the helm of the Sixth CPC had been appointed to the Finance Ministry and therefore they were adamant that this would not come through.We continued our fight and brought Colonels and Brigadiers, into PB 4 (SAG grade).When Commandants, of the para military were brought into PB 4,Lt Col's too were brought in,consequent to a long drawn out fight and a presentation made, to Mr Pranab Mukherjee.(early Nov 2008) I once again found mischief in the dispensation given to Lt Col's with a Grade Pay of Rs 8000,when there was no reason for them not to be given the same as Commandants of the PMF, ie Rs 8700,since this group in the Fifth CPC had a lower scale than that of a Lt Col.The Services should have stood their ground instead of giving in.This was a fatal mistake.I demitted the post of Chairman PARC in Dec 2008 and I later learnt that the Services subsequently did not force the NFU issue OR worse, rescinded their claim. I may also add, that what the Services did decline although offered by the Government, was PRIS (Performance related incentive Scheme)This is another sad story ,but I will not delve on this, for the moment. 3.Colonel Ajai Shukla was spot on in his recommendations and understanding of the Subject,however I disagree with him that NFU could be substituted for allowances.While in the Service, I cried hoarse, that nothing, could be more off the mark.Pay cannot be substituted by allowances and should never be agreed to .Successive Pay Commissions, have at the behest of the bureaucracy, done this to distract and give us a raw deal.Pay is the ground reality of Status.Pay goes beyond the serving tenure well into retirement and since we have truncated careers this is most relevant to us. NFU,I agree, is not what the Services asked for,but would it be fair if a bureaucrat who for any reason does not make the selection criteria for promotion to the post of Joint Secretary and then gets a double promotion to the Additional Secretary grade ,above that of the select rank of Maj General equivalent?This is very serious, as this would continue for the life of the Officers so affected.Here I am not talking of the IAS alone but all Group A services. 4. I am afraid that I was very surprised to hear the responses of Shri CM Vasudeva. He even stated that promotions in the Civil Services were merit based and there were stops at all levels even for the IAS. The fact is, that all IAS Officers will eventually retire in the Apex scale holding posts of either Special Secretary or Secretary.Other Group A services will all get pay promotions to the Addl Secy grade (HAG) In fact this is defined in the NFU clause as repeatedly brought out by the Veterans.The ones that do not make it, are those whose promotion is kept in a sealed envelope (in other words,cases pending against them)What is more surprising is that this false statement,is being bandied about by the IAS lobby, in order to make us chew the cud.They are even approaching very senior retired Officers to help them quell the fire brewing.I must say that whatever we achieve has to be by peaceful means,as we are all loyal citizens and patriots,perhaps the best in the country and that is what we should always remain.One brilliant ex bureaucrat once called me aside and told me that she cannot understand our stances, as the country at large ,holds us in very high regard,unlike the bureaucracy.Perhaps ,that is why we need to pay a cost. 5. Back to NFU. It is in the public domain,that even the para military forces have been given NFU. Can any Govt do this to their Armed Forces?Why would any one want to join the Army, if his pay and pension and indeed his truncated service career, is far below the police and the paramilitary. I do not say promote everybody,but there is no reason why our pay and pension prospects are reduced below that of the civil services. In the case of our OR's,repeatedly every Pay Commission has echoed a sentiment that they should be given other Government jobs,but no Govt has even looked their way after the dust has settled on the Commission's report.Everybody knows that a Jawan in his mid 30's is retired to get a pension of 50% of his pay.This is when his filial responsibilities are at its height.6. A long time ago, I had written an article on NFU. where I had brought out the promotional disparities between the Armed Forces and the Civil Services.Perhaps that needs to be re circulated.7. Lastly and this is very important.We in the Armed Forces bank on Pay Commissions to remedy the fault lines,however this is never done as their charter does not encompass this.Most of the upheavals (raising their status for civil services) is done between Pay Commissions,who, later ratify the change.I will give one example.An IG of Police is in accordance with the protocol of the Government of India is equal to a Brigadier.In our Embassies abroad,a Lt Colonel or DIG posted in the Embassy is at par with a First Secretary. Yet both these posts have adjusted their status much above their protocol levels and also their Grade Pays.Thus today an IG gets the same Grade Pay as a Major General.When I brought this to the notice of the Ministries post the Sixth CPC,all they had to say that Grade Pays were pertinent as benchmarks within a Service and not across all services.But this has not been implemented in spirit.For those who do not know, I would also like to state that,the Armed Forces Officer cadre is the first named even before the IAS,as a Group A service.I am writing this,as a number of times a falsity is promulgated that the Armed Forces Officer is a Commissioned Officer and not a Group A ..Officer. In conclusion, we have cases in the Armed Forces where pay is delinked from rank.AMC officers reach the Apex grade as Colonels.Now, though NPA is an allowance,this is given to them, in their pension.Also the Lt General grade is divided into two by status and protocol and yet there are no command and control problems. NFU too, could be factored in for the other Officers,without any Status change.We cannot be left behind for no apparent reason and this time, in the Seventh CPC the Chief's have supported the grant of NFU to Armed Forces Officers.As is well known.the Chairman 7th CPC recorded his opinion that if NFU is continued for the Civil Services then the Forces should not be left out.Two other members suggested that NFU be scrapped totally.Both these recommendations were ignored and a status quo prevails. Regards, Rear Admiral Alan O'Leary(Retd)
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