The great divide : Injustice from Justice Sreekrishna

The great divide, and the denial of justice.

Our society gets divided on many forms and accounts. The poor and the rich, the literate and the illiterate, abled and the disabled, … and the list of ‘divide’ is very long. Divisions of all sorts There is a continuous effort by our ‘masters of the society” to eradicate such divides, and bring in equality and justice. While many such divisions are still prevalent in our society, divisions of many more are being created. New divisions happen (or created) on many frontiers of our society and life. New cases of “ ‘have’s and ‘have not’s “ are still being created (not just happens).

One such division, recently created, is among the Central Govt employees and the pensioners. The Sixth Central Pay Commission ( headed by Justice Sreekrishna) is the creator of this divide. The Government, however, has vetted the division. However, this not being a National issue, has not surfaced out appropriately.

The division, concerning the Central Govt employees (both present and former), is not affecting the present employees (gainers), but affects the former employees (pensioners) who are the losers. This divide is certainly a painful one for the pensioners, a very small fraction of our society.

Though the present employees are ‘over-joyed’ over the 6PC recommendations and its implementation (with more icing by the Government ), some of the pensioners are very sad about it (although there is an increase in the monthly pension). The reason for this divide is a discrimination towards the pensioners, based on a date.

1 January 2006, the effective date of implementation of the 6PC recommendations, is the unfortunate day for many of the pensioners. The division is among employees retired on or before 31-12-2005 and the employees retired or serving on or after 1-1-2006. The midnight on 31 Dec 2005 is the “Berlin wall” for these two “Classes of employees”. Retirees on or before 31-12-2005 are the have-nots, while all others are haves.

In one of my earlier posts, I brought an example of the division. To remind you of the ‘great difference’, look at the following. There’s many unjustifiable differences, and I am quoting only just one among them

A person retiring on 31-12-2005 gets an amount of 3.5 Lakhs as the Gratuity. But, a person retiring on the next day (ie. 1-1-2006) walks away happily with 10 Lakhs. I am sure that the 6PC and the Govt authorities understand very well that the amount of Gratuity is a lumpsum amount paid to the retired person (as a gratitude !) for making a settlement/ base for his retired (old age) life. Thanks to our system, for giving a monthly pension for the maintenance of the retired’s old age life (though inadequate to maintain the life standards ). The person leaving on 31-12-2005 settles his life with 3.5, and the other person leaving after the midnight of that day settles with 10 Lakhs. The difference is 3 times ! This is certainly a great divide and is not justifiable.

Central Govt rules stipulate (that’s what I understand) that a Commission be appointed for review of the pay and related aspects of the Central Govt employees, once in 10 years. Since the 5^th PC recommendations were made effective on 1-1-1996, the 6^th PC made 1-1-2006 as its “effective date” for implementation. That’s fine, but that’s not meant to be the base for a justifiable structure of pay and related matters. Cost of living or any other economic parameter did not jump 3 times on that ‘sacred’ day.

A revision of pay structure (as given now) can be created by any babu at the Central secretariat. But, that’s not what was expected of the Commission, its Chairman, and the Govt. The Commission was expected to consider the issue and requirements in its global nature and on a 360^O perspective. Had it been on such an angle, a more equitable and justifiable outcome would have come. I think, the Commission had an easy task, by taking it too easy. Was the objective of the task only to frame new scales of pay for the present employees ? Only to make them happy ? Or to compute on a multiplication factor to compute a slightly higher Pension?

On the implementation front, the Govt authorities haven’t put their mind into the social implications of implementing such recommendations. Probably, they did only a mathematical exercise to compute the total financial burden on the national exchequer.

6PC and the Govt authorities, I wish, should have had a more logical look at the social aspects of the implementation of the 6PC recommendations.

What I am pointing out here is only an element of the discriminatory nature of the 6PC aspects. Many more things are in the field. This is evident from the fact that our Armed Forces have NOT accepted the implementation of these recommendations. This too reinforces the fact that Justice Sreekrishna did not do justice to many. That includes our Armed Forces and the poor pensioners.

In my view, the above ‘sacred day’ – 1 Jan 2006 – has no relevance at all. It did the division, and that’s all. This is not justifiable. Why should all the things be applicable from this sacred day only ? What’s wrong if it had a backward date and applicability. That doesn’t mean that I am suggesting for my convenient date for applicability/ implementation. Let the date of implementation be 1 Jan 2006. But it’s applicability, in a proper format, be made backward too. To suggest an example, in the case of the Gratuity, let a formula be made with backward applicability (for the last 10 years). Let the pensioners (before 1-1-06) get a modified Gratuity = 10 lakhs minus ((2006 minus year of retirement) X 10% of 10 lakhs). {This is backwardly tapering down at 10% per year, for 10 years }. In the case of Commutation of pension too, there’s a big discrimination. That too should be appropriately worked out (on such a backward tapering principle) and justified.

I am aware that there would be an additional load on the Govt budget, but that's too small for the Govt to bear. Remember, the Govt could easily write off 75,000 crores towards the agricultural loans (which in fact did not reach the real suffering farmers ). Many more crores have been pumped recently into the stock market system, in an effort to save a minor fraction of our population. The additional burden that would bring in by implementing a backward tapering formula, for the pensioners, is not a burden at all, for the Govt. In fact, that would be a case of justice done.

My attempt here is not to say that 6PC and the Govt did all blunders. They did excellent work and recommendations on many aspects. To cite an example, Govt implemented the ‘One Rank One Pension” principle. By the way, this is an excellent case of doing some justice to all the pensioners.

My attempt here is to invite the attention of ALL related personnel and the Govt to relook into the ‘unjustified’ aspects of this issue.

Will someone put their thoughts on this ? I hope some one does.. the authorities.. the guards of our society …. . and resolve the unjustifiable divisions.

May God Bless all.