The 1.5-million personnel of the armed forces will not be a happy lot this festive season, as their revised pay scales are expected to be paid only in November.
They will take home, salaries under the old pay scales this month, but would get a part of the 40 per cent arrears under the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) that would bring some cheer before Eid, being celebrated tomorrow, and Diwali later this month.
The defence personnel's 3.5 million civilian counterparts would go home with lot of plans to celebrate, as they got an increased pay under the new scales this month.
The new CPC scales came into retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.
The government has already announced that it would paid out a part amount of the 40 per cent arrears to the armed forces, following the forces submitting their CPC salary vouchers.
The defence chiefs had accepted the new "discriminatory" pay scales, after prolonged protest by refusing to implement the Cabinet decision, with Defence Minister A K Antony talking to Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal F H Major and Army chief General Deepak Kapoor.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also set up a three-member ministerial committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, with Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as members, to consider the defence personnel's pay-related grievances.
Source : PTI