5 Governors meet Home Minister over pay hike

5 Governors meet Home Minister over pay hike

Governors of five States met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday and asked him for an increase in salary, a proposal that has been pending with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) since last year.

C. Vidyasagar Rao (Maharashtra), E.S.L. Narasimhan (Telengana and Andhra Pradesh), K.K. Paul (Uttarakhand), Ram Naik (Uttar Pradesh) and S.C Jamir (Odisha) were the Governors who met Mr. Singh.

A Home Ministry official confirmed that the Governors raised the issue of increase in their salaries at the meeting with Mr. Singh. “Other procedural matters were also discussed and salary was one of the main issues,” said the official.

After the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission, the President of India has been drawing a salary that is less than that of a Joint Secretary rank officer posted in the Government of India.

The Home Ministry had moved a proposal in 2016 to increase the salaries of the President, Vice-President and those of the Governors.

The Home Ministry proposed a 70% increase in the salary of the President from the current ₹1.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh per month. Similarly, for the Vice President, the proposal is to increase the salary from ₹1.10 lakh to ₹3.5 lakh per month.

“The Cabinet Secretary, the seniormost [civil servant] in government hierarchy, gets ₹2.5 lakh currently,” said a senior government official.

The increase in salary is commensurate with the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, an official said. The Commission gave its report to the government in 2016 and proposed an average increase of 14% in the salaries of all government employees. The Commission submits its report every ten years.

An official explained that the delay in processing the proposal could be on account of taking a decision on a similar proposal to hike the salaries of Members of Parliament, as recommended by a joint committee on salaries and allowances of MPs. The committee had recommended a hike in the salary of MPs from the current ₹1.4 lakh per month to ₹2.8 lakh per month.

Source: The Hindu