Sixth Pay Commission Report

The latest decision of the Union Govt to appoint a High Power Committee, largesely consisting of IAS Officers who are actually the bane of our bureaucracy, is not going to make any difference to the grievances of the Central Govt. employees who have been meted out a raw deal by a commission headed by no less than a retired judge of the Supreme Court. Its a truly unfortunate report written by some misguided mind who has an utter contempt for govt employees. There is a perception shared by many in this country against govt.employees. Its true that govt employees don't exactly cover themselves with glory; but they are individually not responsible for many of the evils that afflict our bureaucracy. They are merely helpless cogs in a giant wheel which runs slowly, halts unexpectedly and resumes its spin God knows when! Who is to blame for the inefficiency, corruption, nepotism and redtapism which are the hallmarks of our system? Its the IAS which is at the helm of affairs. The bureaucracy is led by the IAS. And, we are a leader-led society. If the leader is eiificient, dynamic and able to extract work from his team, he is successful, if not, he is a failure. If by any odd chance any individual shows initiative or promise, the credit for the work is invariably gobbled up by the twice born! The IAS, the most pampered and the most corrupt service in the country has long played with the people and the time has come to put an end to this drama of the absurd! The opportunity has come in the wake of the Sixth Pay Commission Report. Its a report which is bottom weak, middle fragile and top heavy! The bottom is the clerical cadre. "Let them go to hell, who cares." The middle is weak, true but only for a short period if the officer is from the IAS because he will soon graduate to the top cadre, read pay band 4! What about the others who can't reach the PB4 that easily? Why worry about these mediocre fellows? They are not twice born, in any case! So, let them rot there. After all they are just Deputy Secretaries and Directors! If they all get into PB4 who will be there in PB3? PB 3 also requires some manpower! So, they can remain there. The twice born, the IAS, needs to be adequately pampered(compensated). So, give them a 40% hike and say that the hike is 40% across the board. The PB 1&2 can hardly read the report, much less understand it. The PB 3 can do no harm except raise some murmurs because if they speak loudly, they may lose even that remote chance of making it to PB4! Don't forget about the ACRs! The ACRs of most PB 3 chaps are written(rotten) by the twice born. Does this appear like sptting venom? Far from it, its the expression of anguish of someone who has closely watched the way they conduct themselves publicly and behave privately. The first question they ask anybody who appears to be competent and intelligent is, "U are from which batch?" If u say u had never been to Mussourie, u are immediately treated as an untouchable.
The Pay Commission says that field postings are harsh for IAs officers. Yes, its harsh. A dist. Collector keeps 4 to 5 cars apart from his red lighted car to cater to the shopping requirements of "madam", trasporting children to schools, music teacher, swimming pool, skating rink, etc and to take the pet to the wet for check ups etc! Yes, its indeed harsh as you have around 10 to 15 servants at ur disposal to meet all ur needs like cooking, washing, pressing clothes, watering the lawn, answering the phone, looking after the children, all unauthorisedly. The Collector is entitled to a bungalow, a car, an attender, a driver, 2 Camp Clerks, etc. But, they use a lot more than their entitlement as the Collector happens to be the Chairman of several govt owned societies and depts. These excess resources are drwan from the depts which work under him. In one State, a new car was bought for a newly started project and the project head took it to the Collector's bungalow just to show it to the boss. The boss said, "its a nice car. Keep it here. I will use it". There ended the matter. Without muttering a word, the brand new car had to be left for the use of the Collector! Yet, the Collector is seen by the public as a dazzling symbol of integrity, probity and authority. Today, the Collector has become a rogue institution and whoever occupies it is becoming a rogue character and naturally. This rogue character follows the IAS wherever they go in their subsequent journey as officers of the All India Service. Almost all IAS officers have acquired this rogue character without an iota of doubt. If anybody argues against this generalisation, the exceptions, if any can be counted with the fingures of just one hand and no more. These are the characters who preside over the destiny of this country, its bureaucracy and its adminstration. They are the ones who go on to become Joint Secretaries, Addl. Secretaties, Secretaries, Cabinet Secreatary, etc. Three years of service in the IAS is equal to ten years of slogging in other gazetted services. Since all IAS Deputy Secretaries and Directors will become Joint Secretaries and Secretaries eventually in a time bound manner, the cake is kept at the top reserved for them. If its given at the middle level, it will have to be shared with others! How can that be allowed? Whence, this distorted pay hike proposals. But, what's amazing is that a former judge of the Supreme Court, a professor of the IIM etc, should fall an easy prey to the machinations of this service. They appeared to bow to the wishes of the IAS, otherwise such a preposterous report could not have come out.
Now, when this report met with unprecedented opposition from all sections of the bureaucracy, except the IAS, they hardly have anything to complain against, the Govt. appoints first one committee of 3 IAS officers and now another committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary and consisting of several other Secretary level IAS officers! One injury cannot be healed by another injury! This will turn out to be an excercise in futility as nothing meaningful can be expected from a bunch of IAS officers who can convert gold into iron, but not vice versa! Its still not too late to appoint a Group of Ministers to look into the issues and set right the mess created by the pay commission. Otherwise, the personnel in PB 1, 2 and 3 will never get justice.