7th Pay Commission: Allowance report yet to be submitted; PM Narendra Modi is our last hope, says NJCA

"We believe in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will not take any confrontation with government employees. To maintain a good industrial relation in the country PM Modi will find a good negotiated settlement for a large number of government employees," Shiv Gopal Mishra said.

New Delhi/Mumbai, April 21: As allowance reports are yet to be submitted, the National Joint Council of Action (NJCA) which has been actively raising the minimum wage and higher allowance issue under 7th Pay Commission has finally opened up its trump card. Shiv Gopal Mishra, the NJCA convenor reportedly said that “If the demands made by central government employees, especially on higher allowances and minimum wage under the 7th Pay Commission are further delayed they will soon meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is our last hope”. The recommendations of 7th Pay Commission was approved in June last year and soon after it, a committee was set up to look into the issues of higher allowances and minimum wages. Almost 10 months have been passed but the committee on allowances led by Cabinet Secretary Ashok Lavasa has not yet submitted its final report, which has upset a large fraction of central government employees who have are eagerly waiting for their hiked pay under 7th Pay Commission. Some reports suggest that the Ashok Lavasa committee may submit its report to the Finance Ministry by the end of next week and a decision on the implementation of 7th Pay Commission might be taken after the MCD Elections is Delhi is over.

“Earlier we have met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and if needed we will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise our issue on higher allowances,” Shiv Gopal Mishra said on Wednesday in a video posted on social media. Mishra further said, “We believe in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will not take any confrontation with government employees. To maintain a good industrial relation in the country PM Modi will find a good negotiating settlement for a large number of government employees”. Mishra also said that they will soon meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. 

Mishra further added, “The government will only take a decision after the committee submits its report and if the delay has been done from committee side we can’t expect Union Government to take a final call.”

NJCA is a joint body of unions representing central government employees. Around 43 lakh central government employees and 57 lakh pensioners have been eagerly waiting for the pay hike. But the NJCA chief informed India.com that a large chunk of central government employees holds their faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For 1 crore central government employees, PM Modi is a final ray of hope, Mishra said.

The NJCA has also kept its demand in front of cabinet secretary saying that the higher allowances must be given to central government employees with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016. Due to the delay in implementation of higher allowances, the central government employees’ unions had threatened to call for a nationwide strike in May.

The ‘Committee on Allowances’, headed by Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa was formed in July last year to look into allowances other than dearness allowance as the 7th Pay Commission had recommended abolition of 51 allowances and subsuming others out of 196 allowances.