IPS body lays claim to home secy post

Ahead of crucial meeting of a government panel to examine the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, senior police officers raise the bar for parity with the Indian Administrative Service, report Aloke Tikku & Sunita Aron.

Ahead of Wednesday’s crucial meeting of a government panel to examine the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, senior police officers on Tuesday raised the bar for parity with the Indian Administrative Service, laying claim on the coveted post of home secretary and demanding police service pay for security personnel on the lines recommended for the armed forces.

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The committee of secretaries (CoS), tasked to look into the pay panel’s recommendations, is slated to meet on Wednesday, possibly to finalise its report to the Union Cabinet. Sources said it would take a call on a proposal to ask the Cabinet to go ahead with implementation of the non-controversial parts of the report in the first instance and constitute another committee of ministers or bureaucrats to thrash out the contentious issues, like a better deal for the IPS.

The CoS is understood to have been appreciative of the employees’ demand to correct the methodology to calculate pay hikes which would effectively raise their basic pay by 10-12 per cent and settle for a standard 3 per cent increment for the officials. The pay panel had recommended performance-based differential increments but it did not find many takers in the government.

Besides, sources indicated, the CoS could also make some improvements in salaries at entry levels for the higher civil service to encourage people to join public service and try to address demands for functional parity for defence service officers and “some increase” in the military service pay for defence personnel.

As things stand, IPS officers were unlikely to get any major concessions. Police officers said they asked for an extraordinary general body meeting as they expected the committee of bureaucrats would ignore their demands.

The move by the Indian Police Service (Central) Association in Delhi to lay claim to the home secretary came in this backdrop and indicates their loss of faith. The IPS officers argued that posting a police officer to the home secretary’s post would ensure professional management of police related policy issues and sensitive cadre management.

The association also demanded sanction of police service pay to police personnel of all ranks; parity in the scales of senior-most IPS officer like the director of the Intelligence Bureau with the chiefs of the army, navy and air force and chairman of the Railway Board; and apex scale of Rs 80,000 to all director general-rank officers in the Centre and states.