14 Jan 2016 Hindustan Times (Delhi) HTC 13-member committee to look into seventh pay panel recommendations

Setting the ball rolling to process the seventh pay panel recommendations, the Union cabinet on Wednesday decided to set up a 13-member committee headed by cabinet secretary PK Sinha to screen the pay panel’s recommendations.
The panel had recommended an average 24% hike in salary, allowances and pension of government employees, a move that will benefit 4.8 million staffers and 5.5 million pensioners.
The recommendations — slated to come into effect from January 1, 2016 — will put an additional burden of ` 1.02 lakh crore on the exchequer in 2016-2017.

Parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the empowered committee would process the pay panel’s recommendations “in an overall perspective”.
However, the committee’s composition comes as a setback for non-IAS officers who were pushing for better representation in the committee that will, for all practical purposes, take decisions on the pay panel’s report.
Government sources told HT that the majority of the committee members were IAS officers who would not be inclined to pursue suggestions that IAS officers should not retain their edge over other services. Nine of the 13 members are from the IAS.