Jharkhand could well become the first state government to hike salary of its employees in line with the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC).
A decision to appoint a fitment panel to examine the recommendations of the 7th CPC for the state government employees was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das on Tuesday, according to a PTI report.
The state government has about 1.62 lakh employees on its rolls and had already expressed its ability to take on the additional burden on the implementation of the CPC's recommendations. The additional outgo is estimated at Rs. 2,820 crore, including those for pensioners.
"We will need to pay Rs 1,866 crore more in salary and Rs 953 crore more in pension if Seventh Pay Commission recommendations are adopted," Amit Khare, state additional chief secretary had told The Telegraph on June 29, 2016.
"We are a budget surplus state. The state government can implement the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission," he added.
The Jharkhand government paid Rs. 8,199 crore in salaries and Rs. 3,969 crore as pension during 2015-16.
State government employees have already demanded pay parity in line with their Central government counterparts and now, public sector employees have made a similar demand for which they have decided to go on strike on September 2.
Last month, the Tripura government had said that it would consider pay hike for employees once the Centre makes a final decision on implementing the pay panel proposals. There are about 2.09 government employees and pensioners in the state.
Earlier, Karnataka government employees had gone on a one-day strike on June 2 demanding salary hike on the lines of those for Central government staff.
"The difference (in pay) is very huge and there is no priority so it varies from 40% to 100%.We have issued a notice to the government and subsequently today all 6,40,00 employees are going for strike and absenting from their duties today," Narayan, Organising Secretary of the Karnataka State Employees Association, told a news channel on June 3.
"There are 24 states which are paying salaries on par with the Central government employees. This includes states which are not as developed as ours. If the government does not heed to our demands even now, then we will go on strike for a longer duration," the Association president Mahadevaiah Matapathi had said.
