Karnataka: Cabinet to discuss pay panel report

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said his government would take a stand on the recommendations of the sixth pay commission for state government employees after it is discussed at the next Cabinet meeting.

Replying to K.T. Srikante Gowda (JD(S) in the Legislative Council on Thursday, he said a three-member committee headed by former IAS officer, Mr M.R. Srinivasa Murthy, constituted on June 1, 2017, had submitted its report to him on January 31, 2018. "I am yet to study the report in detail. Besides, this needs to be discussed by the Cabinet. It is premature to say anything in this regard without reading it".

The CM said the commission had recommended 30 per cent salary hike for state government employees. This was 7 per cent more when compared to the recommendation of the previous commission. Till the report was vetted by the Cabinet, it would not be possible for him to say anything except that 99.9 per cent of employees were happy with the recommendations. The second volume of the commission’s report is expected in the next two to three months. However, it was impossible to equalise the salary and perks of state employees with those of central government employees since the nature of the jobs and working style were totally different.

Mr Srikante Gowda said that according to his information, House Rent Allowance of employees had been brought down to the ratio of 24:16:8 as against the existing 30:20:10. Most of the employees were unhappy with this. Besides, the work pressure on the employees was more as around 2.6 lakh posts were vacant. 

In view of this, it would be better for the government to hike the salary on par with central government employees, he said.