5 Jan :Conceding the demand of its employees, Bihar govt announced that recommendations of 6th Pay Commission would be implemented from 1st January 2006 in principle and the actual benefit would be given from April, 2007.Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the government has also decided to give grade pay of Rs 4200 in the scale of 5000-8000 and 5500-9000 as recommended by the pay panel.
"The government on December 23 while announcing the implementation of 6th Pay Commission, had given the grade pay of Rs 3200 and Rs 3600 for these two scales. Now this is being increased to Rs 4200 for both scales bringing it to the Centre’s pay grade," he said.
While implementing the 5th pay panel’s report the state government had done so in principle with effect from 1st January 1996 and the actual economic benefit was given from April, 1997. The same pattern was being followed here, he said.
Monday’s decision will put an additional burden of Rs 525 crore on the state’s exchequer towards arrear payment and Rs 424 crore annual burden towards regular salary payment and Rs 110 crore due to enhancement in grade pay, Modi said.
He also appealed to the employees not to go on strike as the government was sensitive to their demands.
"Employees should keep in mind the state’s economic condition and the devastation caused by Kosi river deluge," he said. Nitish flays Centre for ‘unilateral’ amendment to CrPC Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has criticised the Centre for constituting a federal investigating agency and making amendments to the CrPC even before the conference of chief ministers convened by PM Manmohan Singh.
While saying that the conference on handling terror attacks and countering naxalism is a welcome step, he said such a meeting was long overdue."The Centre woke up to the issue after the terror attacks in Mumbai … It is better late than never," Kumar said before leaving for New Delhi for the conference.
He also said that the Centre should have convened this meeting before taking ‘unilateral’ decisions such as formation of a federal investigating agency and making changes to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Referring to Union Home minister P Chidambram’s letter to chief ministers for setting up round-the-clock control rooms for intelligence relating to terrorism and organised crimes, he said, no direction was given to state governments, only a suggestion was made.
Stating that a Rs 291 crore proposal for modernising the police in Bihar was submitted to the 13th Finance Commission recently, he said the Centre was not releasing funds as the erstwhile RJD dispensation had not submitted utilisation certificates for four years from 2001.
"Why is the present regime being punished for the fault of the previous government?" Kumar said.
The CM said the government would appoint 13,000 constables and ASIs to increase the police-citizen ratio in the state for which recruitment is currently underway.
Referring to the naxal menace, Kumar said that the state government’s experiment of ‘government at your doorsteps’ launched at Sikaria village in Jehanabad district in 2007 had yielded positive results and hoped that the Centre would provide financial assistance for tackling the menace.CM alleges lack of Central aid, offers cash for Kosi victims
The row between Centre and Bihar over post-Kosi deluge relief measures re-surfaced on Monday with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announcing monetary help for victims to buy foodgrain as the Centre "failed" to release it from the FCI.
"As the Centre did not release the required quota of foodgrains, wheat and rice from the FCI at their existing rate, we are giving cash doles for the purchase of foodgrains," Kumar said.
This time every affected family would be given Rs 1,590 in cash to purchase foodgrains, he said.
He hoped that the Centre would soon release the special package demanded by the state government to take up infrastructure work as the prime minister had declared last year’s floods as a ‘national calamity’.
On 9th Janaury, he would visit Kushaha in Nepal where the Kosi river breached on last 18th August to oversee repair works.