KL Report
SRINAGAR
Days after Director General Police Ashok Prasad sent a letter to government asking it to sort out the pay anomaly issue within different ranks of J&K Police, Finance department on Tuesday said that it was actively considering the case and would soon take a call on the issue.
Highly placed sources in Finance department told a local news agency, KNS that the Principal Secretary Finance and Panning BB Viyas has sought an appointment with the Finance Minster Abdul Rahim Rather shortly to arrive at a final decision.
“The final decision was earlier processed by the then Finance Secretary and incumbent Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khanday after which Finance Minster raised some queries and observations,” sources said. “It was due to these observations that the issue was stuck for some time but now Principal Secretary Finance is meeting Finance Minster to clarify those queries and observations so that Finance Minster arrives at a final decision.”
“The meeting on this issue is going to be held very shortly and it is likely that the matter would be sorted out in favor of police,” a senior bureaucrat in the Finance department, wishing anonymity told KNS.
The development came after the Chief Secretary forwarded the DGP’s letter to the Principal Secretary Financer asking him to look into the matter. “I have sent the letter to Principal Secretary Finance and it is the Finance department that has to look into the matter,” Khanday told KNS.
Meanwhile, Prasad hoped that the matter would be sorted out without any further delay and said that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has assured Police that the discrepancies in the pay anomaly would be sorted out.
“We are sure government is at it. The matter is already under discussion at highest level and the results would hopefully come in our favour,” the DGP told KNS.
Earlier, Prasad had written a letter to the Chief Secretary appealing him to consider the issue of pay anomaly in different ranks of Jammu and Kashmir Police. Soon after the cabinet approved the removal of pay anomaly for Revenue Officers on Tuesday, the DGP wrote a letter vide reference number Estt/PG-5/11/09-22496 to the Chief Secretary saying that this issue which has been under the consideration of the state government for a long time has not been addressed yet. “Since the issue of pay anomaly pertains to about 90 per cent of the police strength, resolution of the same would have a very positive effect on the overall morale of the force. It is accordingly requested that the matter may kindly be looked into for expeditious disposal and issuance of the formal orders by the concerned department at an earliest,” the letter, a copy of which lies with KNS reads.
It further reads that the formal orders in this regard are yet to be issued by the Finance Department although the matter has repeatedly been brought into the notice of the concerned by the Police Head Quarter (PHQ). “Even after issuances of the 6th Pay Commission vide SRO 93/2009 dated 15-4-2009, the issue of anomalies continues to persist as the State Government did not address the same during 6th Pay Commission recommendations.”
“Vide SRO-18/1998, the state government revised pay scales in respect of its employees. In respect of Police department, pay scales for constables, SGCT, HC and ASI were notified. Since there was a marginal difference between these pay scales (at the minimum stage), PHQ accordingly took up the matter with the Government in June 1998 and later in December 2000 for improving pay scales of SG, constables,” reads the latter.
The DGP writes, “The proposal remained pending consideration in the Home/Finance Departments in between 1998-2007 and no action (in what-so-ever manner) was taken by the Government on the said proposal.”
The DGP has appealed to government that orders on the issue are to be issued by the Finance department.
