IAS officers campaign against pay parity requests
NEW DELHI: Officers belonging to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) have started a major letter campaign ahead of submission of the Seventh Pay Commission report later this month, to counter lobbying by other Central services like IPS and IRS to bring pay parity and end the “superiority” that the IAS has traditionally enjoyed over them.
Following whatsapp messages circulated recently on their closed group, IAS officers have been writing petitions to their Central and state associations, apart from secretary, department of personnel & training (DoPT), protesting against attempts by all other associations “to bring in pay parity and do way with the edge enjoyed by the IAS which has been successively upheld by every pay commission till date in a reasoned manner”.
The whatsapp message had asked the IAS officers to “burn the midnight oil and pour your heart out as to why you came to the IAS and why you deserve what you deserve”.
“Young officers with 20-30 years of service have everything to lose if we don’t stand up now,” the whatsapp message said exhorting the officers to shoot off letters to their Central and state associations as well as DoPT arguing “as to why IAS is the premier service of the country considering the multifarious takes we perform and why a notional edge is a sin-qua-non to keep our morale high and confidently discharge our duties”.
“Please don’t discuss and start a debate. Huge noises of anguish and dissent should be heard in the power corridors by the time the 7th Pay Commission sits by the month end to collate its recommendations,” said the internal message that showed up whatsapp account of IAS officers over the past couple of weeks.
The 7th pay panel is set to submit its report to the government by this month end. It will then go through the implementation committee, the finance ministry, Cabinet secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office before the approval of the government is given.
IAS officers enjoy an edge over other Central services like IPS and IRS in terms of promotions, increments as well as empanelment, not to mention their proximity to the political dispensation given their nature of responsibilities.
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