The Hindu : Murmur of dissent in Cabinet on pay panel formation?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 07, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Murmur of dissent in Cabinet on pay panel formation?

Hyderabad Jan. 6. Opinion appeared to be divided in the Cabinet over the wisdom of placing a huge burden on the State exchequer by constituting another Pay Revision Commission for over 10 lakh employees.

While there was no explicit opposition to the PRC at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, senior Ministers seemed sceptical about the political gains it would fetch to the TDP in the Assembly elections after the party had turned down the idea earlier. They expressed their reservations by seeking clarifications from the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, whether the NGOs would not start agitating for payment of interim relief from tomorrow.

Mr. Naidu reportedly said the employees' leaders had assured him that they would not press for payment of interim relief. Sources said there was little scope at the Cabinet meeting for discussing pros and cons of constituting a PRC since the Chief Minister himself introduced the subject by favouring pay revision to the employees. Acknowledging that the employees' workload had increased, he said a pay revision would, among various other things, help in checking corruption.

The rather touchy issue whether a caretaker Cabinet could take a major decision involving an outgo of hundreds of crores of rupees (the seventh PRC in 1999 involved an annual commitment of Rs. 1,750 crores) was also discussed.

The decision was defended on the ground that with the Assembly elections nowhere in sight the Government could not keep important decisions in abeyance indefinitely. It was pointed out that the present Cabinet had the longest tenure so far in caretaker capacity. Moreover, the law did not envisage a caretaker Government nor prevented it from taking policy decisions.

Against this background, some Ministers, who were contacted, denied that it constituted a volte face over the Government's earlier stand that it could not take policy decisions. Immediately after the dissolution of the Assembly on November 14, the Chief Minister had stated that a caretaker Government could only take decisions relating to the Government's day-to-day working but not on policy issues. He was responding to the statement of the Chief Election Commissioner, J. M. Lyngdoh, that it would not be possible to hold early elections.

More recently, Mr. Naidu had criticised the former CLP leader, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, for making electoral promises, including constituting a pay revision commission, that could never be implemented.

The Chief Minister is said to have emphatically rejected at the Cabinet meeting a suggestion by a Minister for payment of DA arrears to State Government pensioners on the ground that it would involve an outgo of nearly Rs. 450 crores. The Government could ill-afford such a huge payment at a time when there was a huge fiscal deficit. He pointed out that some States like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were unable to pay timely salaries and that Karnataka was the only State to have constituted a PRC.

Mr. Naidu reportedly asked the Health Minister, K. Siva Prasada Rao, to deal firmly with junior doctors whose strike entered the 26th day today. He said people did not support the strike and that the Government had conceded 13 out of 16 demands of medicos.

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