TURA: Ministerial officers from Garo Hills have refused to accept January 1, 2017 as the effective date of revised pay and instead demanded the one recommended by the Meghalaya Fifth Pay Commission.
The Fifth Pay Commission, led by retired chief secretary, P J Bazeley, had recommended the revised pay with effect from January 1, 2016.
A memorandum in this regard was submitted by the All Garo Hills District Ministerial Officers’ Association to Chief minister, Mukul Sangma recently.
“Considering the gap of ten years (from when the pay was last revised) we are unable to accept the new pay package. The revised pay must be with effect from January 1, 2016 as earlier recommended and not January 1, 2017,” the association said.
Earlier, the government had announced that the new pay package for all government employees would come into effect from January 1, 2017.
In their memorandum to the chief minister the association said the amount of Rs 1000 per month as medical allowance and Rs 500 as hill allowance were also very low.
The association urged Sangma to raise the medical allowance to Rs 1400 as recommended by the Meghalaya Fifth Pay Commission, as well as to increase the hill allowance to Rs 1000.
In view of the unemployment problem in the state the association also urged the government to raise the age limit for government jobs from the current 32 years to 40 years for Scheduled Tribes.
The association suggested that the age of superannuation be raised to 60 years to make it balanced.
“States such as Punjab, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and many others have taken the initiative to bring down the problem of unemployment. Meghalaya can also do the same,” it said.
