Sixth Pay Commission: Report on armed forces' grievances in two weeks: Navy Chief

Sixth Pay Commission: Report on armed forces' grievances in two weeks: Navy Chief

New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) Rubbishing reports that he was censured by Defence Minister A K Antony for his "defiance" over the Pay Commission report, Navy chief Sureesh Mehta today said he expected the ministerial committee looking into the "core issues" raised by the armed forces to give its recommendations within a fortnight.
Mehta also reiterated that the defence personnel's grievances over the 6th Pay Commission report were "not about money," but about status equivalence and command and control issues.

He said the issues "missed out" were "oversights" and nobody "could have done it wilfully".

"I should think that we will have a final answer within about two weeks time or so," Mehta told reporters here while replying to a question on when the committee headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was expected to submit its report.

"But they (the Mukherjee committee) are in the process of finding out what are the issues involved. And I'm sure they will take the right decision pretty quickly," he said.

Asserting that the issues were about "status equivalence", the Navy chief said: "I said so the other day and I will say it again. The issue over here is not about money.

"The issue here is that there is a certain status equivalence -- there are certain functional requirement (while) working at particular levels." Pointing out that problem arose in the field areas, where paramilitary and forces were working together, he said: "If there is a command and control problem, there is a big issue there. And that is what is happening in the control rooms. You know that in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir we have got these kinds of set ups." PTI

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