J-K Govt denies Naib Tehsildars of 2009, 2018 batch 6th Pay Commission benefits

SRINAGAR — At a time when the Government of India is contemplating going ahead with the 7th Pay Commission and many states have already given 6% Dearness Allowance to their employees and pensioners as a Diwali gift, scores of Naib Tehsildars in J&K of 2009 and 2018 batch are deprived of pay-scale as per 6th Pay Commission.

Perturbed by the inaction of the government, J&K Revenue Officers Association has written to the government to address their grievances. The association in its written communication with the government said that out of 4.5 lakh employees working in the UT of J&K, only a few hundred officers, appointed directly as Naib Tehsildars in the year 2009 and 2018 in the pre-revised pay scale of 6500-10500, have been denied the benefit of 6th Pay Commission, without any reasonable and justified cause, despite having submitted various representation and constitution of committees in the past one decade.

“In order to sort out the matter in a time-bound manner, it is requested that a senior officer in the Department of Finance of the rank of Deputy Director or Director Codes may kindly be entrusted with the job. Furthermore, it is submitted that we deem it proper to mention the following facts for the kind perusal of your good self and the concerned officers of the Finance Department for early redressal of the issue,” reads the communication made by the Revenue Officers Association.

Pertinently in the year 2009, the Government of J&K, vide SRO 93 of the Finance Department, revised all the pay scales existing in the state on the analogy of the Central 6th Pay Commission. Accordingly, the then state government merged all the pay scales existing from 5000-8000 to 6500-10500 and granted them a common pay scale of 9300-10500 with GP of Rs 4200, as a result of which a pay anomaly was created and the employees, particularly Naib Tehsildars, appointed after 01-01-2006, in the pre-revised pay scale of 6500-10500 were put to great disadvantage.

Some months back, the Central government took some corrective steps and rectified the error and granted GP of Rs 4600 under the 6th Pay Commission to the employees working in the pay scale of Rs 6500-10500 vide its Office Memo issued on 13-11-2009.

During the last more than 10 years, Naib Tehsildars appointed in the year 2009, were denied such pay parity i.e granting of grade pay of Rs 4600 by the Department of Finance for unjustified and unknown reasons. This kind of pay anomaly created by the Department of Finance by way of not issuing a corrigendum has got crept into the 7th Pay Commission as well.

Despite a lapse of 13 years, authorities in the Finance Department have failed to rectify the error committed in the year 2009, without giving any justifications. Genuine issues regarding the anomaly of employees working in the pre-revised pay scale of 6500-10500 can only be understood by going through all the relevant SROs like SRO 93 of 2009, SRO 266 of 2009, Office Memo A51(09)-184 of 2010 and Office Memo issued by Ministry of Finance on 13-11-2009.

Only after going through these rules will the concerned officers come to know that the error committed after the implementation of the 6th Pay Commission has not been rectified to date, thereby partially implementing the Pay Commission recommendation.

“Authorities in the Finance Department can not fix Grade Pay and entry pay of employees working in a particular cadre as per their own will and choice. Merely denying the facts without giving any logical reason will never address the genuine problem of employees. The Department of Finance has probably ignored this genuine issue of direct recruits including Naib Tehsildars working in the pre-revised pay scale of 6500-10500, probably because of the fact that Assistant Account Officers, who were earlier working in the same pre-revised pay scale of 6500-10500, had already been upgraded before the implementation of 6th Pay Commission to the next pre-revised pay scale of 7450-11500 and also because the department doesn’t recruit directly employees in the pay scale of pre-revised 6500-10500 pay scale,” said Sajad Ahmad, a senior member of J&K Revenue Officers Association.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary A K Mehta has called a meeting on Tuesday on this lingering issue. Principal Secretary ARI & Trainings, GAD, Planning, Law & Justice, DG Codes Finance have also been asked to attend the meeting. Written communication was issued on 19-10-2022 in this regard by the Finance Department Codes wing.