Cabinet approves revision of pay scales of faculty of Autonomous Medical Education Institutions


The Cabinet has approved enhanced Pay Scales of Faculty of Autonomous Institutions of Medical Education under the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As for RIMS, Imphal and LGBRIHM, Tezpur these two institutions were taken over by the Ministry in the 2007 from North Eastern Council and are currently affiliated to local universities. Faculty members of these two institutions will be given University Grants Commission (UGC) Pay Scales.

The Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) is taking ing various measures to increase the number of subscribers under its New Pension Scheme (NPS). It is in discussions with the General Insurance Council, various industry bodies and companies to offer the plan to their employees. Under the recent deal between the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the pension regulator, all new recruits of banks will join the defined contribution system from April 1, 2010. Already 20 nationalised and 12 private sector banks have joined the new system.
National Aluminium Co (Nalco) was the first public sector entity to join NPS. While 24 per cent of Nalco employees’ salary will go towards Employees Provident Fund, 6 per cent will be invested in NPS. PFRDA has written to the department of public enterprises to enable all central public sector undertakings (PSUs) to bring their 1.5 million workers into the NPS fold. Sources said BHEL, NTPC and DVC are next in line to join NPS.

Karnataka state government will soon clear the 51 months' salary arrears of lecturers of the Department of Higher Education. A notification on clearing arrears has been issued, minister for higher education Aravind Limbavali said here on Thursday. With this notification, the state government will release its share of the amount due to the college lecturers.
Unity professors whose retirement age was recommended to be extended from 60 to 62 years, will also benefit, higher education minister Aravind Limbavali told reporters on Thursday. Recruits who are on probation would be entitled for the pay after probationary period.

Assam state govt employees pay commission.
The Cabinet memorandum prepared for the revised pay scales of the State Government employees said that the State Pay Commission, 2008 was for making applicable the various allowances like TA/DA, etc, and other benefits the employees are entitled to, on the basis of the Grade Pay it has suggested. The Committee constituted by the Government to examine the Pay Commission report also suggested continuation of the system of gradation of posts for the purpose of TA/DA and other allowances.

But, the Committee, while agreeing to the suggestion of the Pay Commission to offer house rent allowance (HRA) to the employees in four categories, suggested some modifications in this regard.

India Post is the largest postal network in the world. It provides postal facilities within reach of every citizen in the country through its vast network at affordable prices. From 23,344 post offices at the time ofindependence to 1,55,035 post offices as on 31.3.2008 (1,39,173 Post Offices are in rural areas and 15,862 Post Offices in urban areas), India Post has made a long journey. It is credited with the largest postal network in the world with one post office serving 7174 people and covering an area of approximately 21.2 sq. kms.

I. PROJECT ARROW
Department of Posts has launched a pilot project ‘Project Arrow’ to lay the foundation for a comprehensive, long‐term transformation of India Post. The project ensures at providing a fast, reliable and efficient postal services to the customers. The ultimate test of success of this scheme is to provide a better experience to the customers, both in terms of the ambience of the post office and quality services to the customers. 1000 post offices have already been covered and proposed to extend the project to another 4500 post offices.

The Delhi government on Tuesday announced that monthly pension of Rs 1,000 would be given to divorced, separated, abandoned women. After a cabinet meeting, chief minister Sheila Dikshit stated the existing scheme providing for a pension of Rs 1,000/month to economically deprived widows was implemented in 2007-08, and as many as 33,000 widows had been covered under it so far.

"It has been decided to expand the eligibility conditions under widow pension scheme to include these women," Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

A large number of references were received from the service Associations and individual officials of the Central Secretariat Service for upgradation of the grade pay of Assistants in the Central Secretariat. The matter after examination in the Department of Personnel and Training was referred to the Department of Expenditure for their consideration.

The undersigned is directed to forward herewith a copy of Department of Expenditure O.M.No.1/1/2008-IC dated 16.11.2009 extending the pay structure of grade pay of Rs.4600 in the pay band PB-2 to Assistants belonging to Central Service with effect from 1.1.2006 for information and compliance of all the Cadre Units of CSS

The Assam government  accepted the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission and its employees are scheduled to get enhanced salaries from this month.

The Cabinet  presided by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, accepted the recommendations of the Pay Commission without much changes this evening, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bharat Narah told reporters.

The employees would get salaries with retrospective effect from April one and the arrears would be given in instalments, he added.

The Sixth Pay Commission headed by retired bureaucrat Bhaskar Barua had submitted its report in November last and it was placed in the just-concluded session of the state legislative assembly.

In order to make the recruitment process more transparent and fair, it has been decided to hold the examination for a particular category on the same date simultaneously by all the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs). A nodal RRB has been nominated for each category. The nodal Railway Recruitment Board will issue Centralized Employment Notice on behalf of all concerned RRBs alongwith other details. Individual RRB will also issue indicative Employment Notice(s). The candidates can submit the application to any RRB but will be able to appear in the examination only at one place.

A well laid down system/procedure is already in existence for conducing recruitment to various posts in Indian Railways. Whenever any case of irregularity or complaint is received, the matter is duly investigated and based on the investigation, deterrent/preventive action is taken.

Employees will now have to pay taxes on perquisites given to them by their employers as the Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified the much-awaited rules for valuation of the benefits. With these rules, the fringe benefit tax (FBT) being paid by employers for giving non-cash benefits, including cars and employee stock options (ESOPs), to employees will be abolished and replaced with a regime that will tax the perquisites in the hands of the employees. It could mean less take-home pay for employees.
Previously, under the controversial fringe-benefit tax (FBT) regime, these perks were taxed at the hands of the employer. However, as exclusively reported by FE earlier, the new norms are almost a replica of the erstwhile Rule 3 of the Income-Tax Rules, which was largely rolled back in 2005 with the introduction of FBT.

Parliament today passed a bill for widening the definition of employees for the purpose of receiving gratuity, which will benefit over 60 lakh teachers.
The proposed bill may take into account broadening the scope of gratuity benefits to cover contract labour, unorganised labour, seasonal labour and farm labour among others, the Minister of State for Labour Harish Rawat assured the Rajya Sabha members on Friday. “We are discussing this with the stakeholders,” he added.

The Minister was responding to clarifications sought by members on the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2009. The Bill that widens the definition of employees for the purpose of receiving gratuity, will benefit over 60 lakh teachers. It covers teachers in private institutions with retrospective effect from April 3, 1997.
It was approved by Lok Sabha on December 16.

In order to give the benefit of increased salariesto its employees, authorities of municipal corporation (MC) have decided to implement fifth pay commission recommendations from next month onwards. This would reportedly lead to an extra burden of Rs 48 crore on the MC exchequer every year.

In a decision taken early this year, state government had approved implementation of the fifth pay commission recommendations and disbursal of increased wages of employees with effect from January 1, 2006. In a letter written to MC, local bodies department of the state had said that if the civic body wanted to implement the recommendations, it was a must for it to generate its own resources so that employees could be given enhanced wages. However, the department had clearly told MC not to expect loan or grant from it.

Bihar govt hikes DA for pensioners to 27%

Bihar government has decided to increase the dearness allowance for state government pensioners from 22 per cent to 27 per cent, a move which will benefit around 2.5 lakh employees.

The ministry also okayed another proposal to increase dearness allowance from 64% to 73% from July 1, 2009, for all government employees, who are getting salaries on old pay scales.

A decision to this effect was taken by the state cabinet at a meeting.

Strike on December 23.

Giving ultimatum to the Jammu and Kashmir Government to provide the remaining benefits under the Sixth Pay Commission before the year-end as promised, at least 4.5 lakh employees across the State would go on strike on December 23.
The employees, under the banner of Employees' Joint Action Committee (EJAC), will also hold protest demonstrations to press for the implementation of the pending Pay panel recommendations, already accepted by the Government in principle.
President EJAC, Abdul Qayoom Wani, said the employees will go on a State-wide day-long strike on December 23. "The employees are ready to teach the Government a lesson for playing tricks and wasting time unnecessarily. If the Government continues its non-seriousness, there will be a complete lockout on Dec 30,” said Wani, threatening that the month of January 2010 will be very hectic for the Government," he said.

The modification of the existing Scheme for Compassionate Appointment has been considered in the light of the recommendation of the 6th CPC as contained in para 2.2.9 and 2.2.10 of its Report.Accordingly, in partial modification of the Scheme for Compassionate Appointment issued by this Department vide O.M.No.14014/6/94-
Estt.(D) dated gth October, 1998, as amended from time to time.

It has been decided in consultation with the Department of Expenditure that for appointment on compassionate arounds, in exceptional circumstat6es Government may consider- recruiting persons not immediatelv meeting the minimum educational standards.

The first meeting of the National Anomaly Committee was held on 12th December, 2009. Secretary (Personnel) chaired the meeting. In the opening remark, Com. Umraomal Purohit drew the attention of the Chairman of the non-functioning of the Departmental Councils in various departments and the consequent non setting up of Departmental Anomaly Committees. He also raised the issue of the order of the DOPT defining the term Anomaly, which was at variance with the one given in 1997. He recalled the discussion he had with the official side in the matter when it was agreed that the definition of the term would be the same as was in the order of 1997. Responding to the remarks made by the Staff Side Secretary, the Chairman said that his office would take steps to ensure the functioning of the JCM at all levels and informed the meeting that the National Council of the JCM would meet on 16th January, 2009 and the notice therefore has already been issued. On the question of anomaly, it was informed by the Chairman, that all efforts would be taken to address all questions of anomaly and resolve them. The official side clarified that all questions of disparity in relativities would also be addressed except on those on which the 6th CPC has gone into and taken decision enumerating reasons. The Chairman asked the staff Side to bring to the notice of the DOPT/DOE of all those items which stand rejected by the concerned Departmental Anomaly Committees taking shelter under the extant definition.



The following items were discussed :

The Department of Personnel public grievances and Pension's  OM No.AB1401716112008-Estt(RR) dated 24.3.2009 issued the guidelines for amendment of Service Rules and  Recruitment Rules for incorporating the changes arising out of 6th CPC recommendations.

2. The 6th CPC have also recommended for bringing uniformity in eligibility criteria across various organized Group A Services for promotions. The issue has been examined and in the light of these, it has been decided that the following steps to amend the existing Service Rules shall be undertaken on priority basis:

(i) For promotion to SAG level, the eligibility requirement shall be " Officers in the JAG with 8 years' regular service in the grade including NFSG OR Officers with 17 years' regular service in Group 'A' posts in the service out of which atleast 4 years' regular service should be in the JAG (including service rendered in the NFSG of the JAG."

Bank employees are planning to go on strike on December 16 during the Parliament Session against banking sector reforms such as privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs) and closure and merger of associate banks/other PSBs with State Bank of India.


It is not for the first time that bank employees are going for such a move in the country, they have always opposed privatization and the government has heeded their demands and has always gone slow in the privatization efforts.

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is providing cashless comprehensive health care services including advance super speciality and tertiary care benefits to ESI beneficiaries. To further fine tune delivery of advance health benefits i.e. super speciality and tertiary care, ESIC has taken the following steps:-

ESI Corporation is bearing the total expenditure on provisions of super speciality services including diagnostic services directly w.e.f. 01.08.2008. 

Tie up arrangements for super speciality and advanced tertiary care services are made directly by ESI Corporation in the States with reputed Government and private medical institutions. 

The Central Board of Trustees, Employees' Provident Fund had recommended to the Government for inclusion of National Savings Certificates and Post Office Termed Deposit Receipts in the pattern of investment.
The matter was examined in consultation with the Ministry of Finance. Government Savings Banks Act, under which the small savings schemes including the National Savings Certificates and Post Office Time Deposit Schemes are being implemented, has been amended through the Finance Act, 2005 to restrict investment in these Schemes to individuals only. Accordingly, it was found not possible to allow EPF investment in these Schemes

Bringing an end to the more than a month-long protest by college teachers, the state government has been finally approved UGC pay scale for them.
A government resolution (GR) in this regard was issued by the state government on Friday. College teachers went on a strike as the state government earlier insisted on implementing its own pay scale.

On October 30, teachers and state government had struck a truce and it was announced informally that UGC pay scale will be implemented.

Kerala  Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said that the proposed revision of pay scales of government employees and teachers will be implemented next year ie 2010.
Mr. Achuthanandan said the government stood by the principle of pay revision every five years. That would mean that the revision would have effect from July 7, 2009.
He said the organisations which had participated in the discussions had expressed divergent views on pay revision and appointment of commission to recommend the pay scales. The Cabinet would decide on the constitution and terms of reference of the commission after considering all the views.

Department of Personnel , public and Grievances.
In pursuance of Government's decision on the recommendations of sixth Central Pay Commission, orders were issued vide this department's O.M. No. 38/37/028-P & PW(A) dated 02-09-2008 for introducing modifications in the rules regulating pension,Retirement/Death/Service Gratuity/Family Pension/ disability pension and ex-gratia lump-sum compensation. In accordance with para 5.2 and para 5.3 of that OM, once a government servant becomes entitled to pension on completion of 20 years/10 years of qualifying service, he shall be paid pension at 50% of the emoluments or average emoluments received during the last 10 months, whichever is more beneficial to him but his pension wuld continue to be proportionate to the pension on completition of 33 years of qualifying service. Para 5.4 of this Department's O.M. No. 38/37/08-P&PW(A) dated 02-09-2008 was modified to that extent.

National e-Governance Plan has identified modernization and upgradation of Employment Exchanges as one of the Mission Mode Projects (MMP). Implementation of this Project will help job-seekers to register on-line from anywhere and approach any Employment Exchange for employment assistance. Under the Project, a national web portal with common software is proposed to be developed. This will contain all the data regarding availability of skilled persons on the one hand and requirements of skilled persons by the industry on the other. It will help youth get placed and enable industry to procure required skills on real time basis. The project will be implemented all over the country.

A committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary to look into the issue of One Rank One Pension and other related matters. After considering all aspects of the issue, the Committee did not find it administratively feasible to recommend One Rank One Pension, as such. However, keeping in mind the spirit of the demand several other recommendations to substantially improve pensionary benefits of personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR) and Commissioned Officers have been made, which have been accepted by the Government:-

i) Inclusion of Classification Allowance for PBOR from Jan 01, 2006.

ii) Removal of linkage of full pension with 33 years from Jan 01, 2006.

Subject: Matters relating to Cosnumer Price Index Numbers for Industiral workers.

The Government had constituted an Index Review Committee (IRC) under the chairmanship of Professor G.K. Chadha, Member, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council for advising the Government on matters relating to compilation of Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW).

The Committee has recommended that the base year of the new series of Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) should not go beyond 10 years so as to be in line with the recommendation of the International Labour Conference. The Labour Bureau has been advised to undertake suitable follow-up action.

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is now serving over five crore beneficiaries all over the country. This was announced by the Union Minister of Labour & Employment, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge at its 148th meeting held here today.


The E.S.I. Corporation approved its Annual Accounts and Annual Report for the financial year 2008-09 in this meeting which was held under the chairmanship of Shri Kharge. The Minister of State for Labour & Employment and Vice Chairman of Corporation Shri Harish Rawat also attended the meeting.

The Corporation has been able to spend Rs. 1123.22 crore on Medical Care and Rs. 380.70 crore on Cash Benefit. The Revenue Income for the Corporation has also increased by Rs. 463.13 crore from Rs. 3989.31 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 4452.45 crore in the year 2008-09 which represents an increase of 11.61% over the previous year.

Government of India has approved the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) proposed by Airports Authority of India (AAI) for those general employees, upto the level of DGM, who were working at IGI Airport, Delhi and CSI Airport, Mumbai.

The details of the scheme are given below:
Ex-gratia - @60 days salary for each completed year of service rendered or salary for the number of months service left, whichever is less.

Additional monthly benefit @100% of the Basic Pay (BP) drawn on date of voluntary retirement for those employees whose age is 58 years and above; 80% of BP for above 50 years and upto 58 years and 60% of BP for below 50 years of age to be paid for a period equivalent to the service rendered or till notional date of superannuation or 10 years whichever is least.

The Government has revised the wage structure and other amenities of all categories of Gramin Dak Sevaks including those engaged to distribute letters in rural areas in the country.


The revised Time Related Continuity Allowance (TRCA) of Gramin Sevaks will be implemented w.e.f. 01.01.2006 while other allowances will be implemented w.e.f 09.10.2009. Women Gramin Dak Sevak will be provided Maternity Grant equivalent to three months TRCA with DA for the birth of two children out of the welfare fund of the Department.

For Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB), present calculation of Ex-gratia bonus by applying the calculation ceiling of Rs. 2500 as basic TRCA+DA shall continue to be adopted till such time a new scheme is devised by the Department.

The Dearness allowance may increase from the current 27% to 35% from January 2010.

The 8% increase is based on the calculation of All India Consumer Price Index Number for Industrial workers. The figures are available from the Labour Bureau of Government of India. The AICPI figures are available upto the month of October. The calculation is based upto the month of October and assuming that the All India Consumer Price Index remains unchanged for the rest of the months. ie November and December.

Employees' State Insurance Corporation proposes to up grade the various specialities in some hospitals and provide modern equipments as per the requirements of each Hospital. ESIC is running one super speciality hospital at Kollam in Kerala. Another Super Speciality Hospital is proposed at Sanath Nagar, Hyderabad, for which construction is in progress.

In super speciality hospitals, the facilities likely to be made available are Cardiology, Cardio-thoracic Vascular surgery, Gastro-enterology, Nephrology, Paediatric surgery in the first phase. Later on, as per requirement further super speciality facilities can be added. In addition, in different ESI Hospitals, super speciality services such as Cardiology, Nephrology are being developed as per requirements

The Department of Posts has had deficit for the last three years and it is expected to continue in the year also.  The details of the  deficit for the last three years and the estimates for the current year are as under;

On the recommendations of Sixth Central Pay Commission , orders were issued by Department of Pension and Pensioner's Welfare that

"In the case of Pensioners who retire on disability pension under the CCS (Extraordinary Pension) Rules, 1939, for 100% disability ( where individual is completely dependent on somebody else for the day to day function) , a constant attendant allowance of Rs. 3000/- per month shall be allowed in addition to the disability pension, on the lines of existing defence forces."

In accordance with the provisions contained in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) O.M.No.7(31)E-Ill(A)/75, dated 4.10.1975 and Department's 0.M of even number dated 148.1969, Stenographers (Ordinary Grade) in Subordinate Offices in the pay scale of Rs.1200-2040 (pre-revised) were granted one or two advance increments respectively on qualifying shonhand speed test at 100 or 120 wpm, both at recruitment stage and while in sewice. It was clarified vide OM dated 14.8.1989 that these advance increments will notcount as pay for allowances and as emoluments for pensionlgratuity.

A demand was raised by the Staff Side in the National Council (JCM) at the OM dated 14.8.1989 may be withdrawn and the advance increments granred to Stenographers (Ordinary Grade) in Subordinate Offices be treated as pay for all purposes.

Kerala Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said that the State government would appoint the Ninth Pay Revision Commission during the current financial year. He also  said the recommendations of the pay commission would be implemented in the financial year 2010-11.
Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has called for a meeting with representatives of state government employees to discuss a revision of pay scales.

“This meeting is the first step (towards pay hike) and has been called to listen to what their (employees’) needs are. After this, we will set up the Ninth Pay Commission. We expect that employees will be able to draw a revised salary by April 1, 2011,”  Isaac.

The state government employees have given 15 days’ time to the authorities to fulfil their demands seeking implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations or be ready for intensified protest in the coming days.

Gujarat State Employees Coordination Committee (GSECC) spokesman R A Patel said the coordination committee of the government employees will meet in Gandhinagar in a week to chalk out the future course of action.

Patel said the details of the future protest programmes cannot not be disclosed at present, but they will be intensified to get the demands met.

JANUARY

26: Republic Day :                  Tuesday

MARCH
28:  Mahavir Jayanti:              Sunday:

Union government's department of personnel and training (DPT) has announced new leave rules for various Central Civil Service employees. The new rules, in force from December 1, will apply to all CCS officials serving across the country and even outside India. Highly-placed sources in the state government said the new rules would also be effective for the state cadre IAS/IPS and IFS officers.
The new rules are for catering to the leave-related needs of the employees in different circumstances such as transfer to industrial establishment; earned leave for those serving in vacation departments, cash equivalent of leave in case of invalidation, paternity leave for child adoption and child care leave.

Nearly 48,000 employees of the Mizoram government will get a major Christmas gift in the form of a new pay scale on a par with the recommendations of the Centre’s sixth pay panel.

The executive committee of the Gujarat State Teacher's Association have met five times after withdrawing their strike. The executive committee is still in the process of deciding whether they should give the government another chance or take up the protest.

The teaching staff of Gujarat University (GU) and all the other universities in the state were protesting against the decision of the state government to grant a revision in their pay scale according to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. The teachers were demanding that they be given the scale of UGC.

The Mizoram government has decided to implement the recommendations of the sixth pay commission, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla said.
Lal Thanhawla, who also holds the finance portfolio, said that the recommendations will be implemented with retrospective effect from January one, 2006.

"In order to sort out possible anomalies in groupings of state government employees, a high level committee, headed by Minister H Liansailova, has been constituted," he told a press conference.

Over eight lakh state government employees seem to be in no mood to compromise with the state government over the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

They have decided to take out a rally from Sardar Baug at Lal Darwaza to Navrangpura on December 6 to mount pressure on the government for its implementation.

Vishnu Patel, the president of the Gujarat State Employees Coordination Committee (GSECC),  that the employees will not accept anything but implementation of the recommendations in toto.

He said the government had implemented the recommendations only partially, which was not acceptable to the employees.

Patel said the government had promised to implement the pay panel report just before the last Lok Sabha elections, but it had been delaying it on one pretext or the other.

source:indianexpress

GSR… In exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to article 309 read with clause (5) of article 148 of the Constitution and after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in relation to the persons serving in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, the President hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, namely: –

(1) These rules may be called the Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2009.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, (hereinafter referred to as the said rules), for rule 6 the following rule shall be substituted, namely, –

Central govt employees are allowed tours by road conducted by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a Government of India's undertaking under the Min of Railways for the purpose of reimbursement of LTC by Government servants on the lines of ITDC/STDC and to say that as the IRCTC is also offering tour packages involving air travel in the  sectors like Delhi - Leh, Delhi - Srinagar, Jaipur -Goa, ChennailCalcutta - Port Blair etc., the question of allowing LTC packages of IRCTC, including the component of air travel has been examined in consultation with the Min. of Finance.
It has now been decided to allow the re-imbursement of air fare along with rail and road fare in the case of LTC

A Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary to look into the issue of One Rank One Pension and other related matters. After considering all aspects of the issue, the Committee did not find it administratively feasible to recommend One Rank One Pension, as such. However, several other recommendations to substantially improve pensionary benefits of Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR) and Commissioned officers have been made, which have been accepted by the Government:-


(i) Inclusion of Classification Allowance for PBOR from Jan 01, 2006.
(ii) Removal of linkage of full pension with 33 years from Jan 01, 2006.

The Pension Fund and Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) unveiled a savings account scheme under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) which would allow investors to enter and exit at will.


The account, called Tier-II, will be available only to those who have subscribed to Tier-I, which an investor cannot exit till the age of 60. Tier-I, a pension account, was launched in May but has not found too many subscribers in the absence of tax benefits at the time of withdrawal.

The scheme attracted 2,775 subscribers till November 27, according to data available on the PFRDA website. Employees who joined the government after January 1, 2004, would also be eligible to open the savings account.

Banks and unions settled on a 17.5 per cent hike in the salary of 702,000 public sector employees, besides agreeing to make 332,000 serving and retired employees eligible for pension. State Bank of India employees association representatives, however, walked out of the wage settlement.

The wage hike would be effective from November, 2007 and would result in an additional outflow of Rs. 4,816 crore annually. This includes a sum of Rs. 2,239 crore for officers and Rs. 2,577 crore for workmen employees for five years. The outflow in case of pension scheme is estimated at Rs. 6000 crore annually.

A general body meeting of the Faculty Association of PGI, Chandigarh, was held on Tuesday. Agitated with the delay in implementation of the sixth pay commission reports, they unanimously reiterated their demands, including pay band-4 for assistant professors, promotion of assistant professor to professor by 10 years and removal of ceiling on basic pay plus non-practicing allowance of the faculty members.

At present, the assistant professors at PGI are placed in pay band-3 and are paid less than their counterparts at GMCH, Chandigarh. This has also resulted in a situation, wherein a newly-appointed assistant professor draws less salary than the senior resident, who is in training and their student.