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Maharashtra accepts Fifth Pay Commission's recommendations

The Maharashtra government gave a pre-Diwali gift to its employees when it decided last night to implement the Fifth Pay Commission's recommendations with effect from January 1, 1996.

The beneficiaries of this decision will be 1.97 million employees of the state government, district councils and municipalities, and the non-teaching staff of agricultural and non-agricultural universities, government-aided primary, secondary, and higher secondary schools.

The decision was taken at a seven-hour meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Joshi at Mantralaya, seat of the government in Bombay.

Joshi later told reporters that government employees would receive salaries according to the new scales with effect from October 1, 1998.

The decision will result in the state exchequer having to shoulder a one-time burden of Rs 51,150 million in the form of arrears and an annual burden of Rs 30,000 million.

Joshi said the Cabinet had decided to pay arrears of Rs 5,000 each to the employees. Half the amount will be paid before Diwali and the other half in November.

The rest of the arrears will be adjusted in the employees' provident fund, with the rider that it cannot be withdrawn for three years.

The revision of pay scales for another 625,000 employees of the state government, including police personnel from the ranks of constable to inspector, forest officers, assistant forest officers, tehsildars, and teaching staff of aided schools will be decided at the next Cabinet meeting.

The new scales include revised dearness allowance, house rent allowance, and city compensatory allowance.

UNI

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