State Govt to constitute 5th pay panel shortly

SHILLONG: Despite financial constraints, the state government is on the job to appoint a Pay Commission to hike the pay and other allowances of its employees.
An official source said on Saturday that an exercise is on to finalize the chairman and members of the Fifth Pay Commission at the earliest.
The Forth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented by the state government 10 years back.
In 2009, when DD Lapang was the Chief Minister, the  state cabinet had announced an overall pay hike of 32 per cent for all its employees with retrospective effect from January 1, 2007 based on the recommendation of the Fourth Pay Commission headed by retired IAS official KK Sinha .
Though the employees who resorted to agitation demanded the implementation of pay with effect from 2006, the government did not pay heed to it.
The arrears were also provided to the employees in several installments.
Since it is mandatory to revise the pay of the employees every ten years, the deadline for the  employees to get the new salary will be early part of 2017 as the last pay hike took effect from January 2007.
Moreover, sources said that with seventh Central Pay Commission recommendation likely to take effect from next month, the state government employees will have no other option but to demand the formation of fifth pay commission at the earliest.