No increments add to the distress of Punjab govt employees

Employees of the Punjab government expressed discontent with the chief minister who, they said, had not taken action regarding various summaries for annual increment, conveyance allowance and scale up-gradation granted by the federal government in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s orders for many months, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The Regulations’ Wing of the federal government’s Finance Division issued an order in December last year for the up-gradation of the posts of private secretaries, stenographers and stenotypists in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s orders. The order read that grade 17 private secretaries would continue to remain in the same grade and would be promoted to grade 18 after putting in five years of service instead of seven years, while those in Grade 18 would get promoted to the next grade after 12 years of service. Moreover, stenographers were upgraded from Grade 15 to Grade 16, while stenotypists were promoted from Grade 12 to Grade 14. However, despite the lapse of a year, the provincial government did not issue a notification of the upgraded scales, inviting the ire of scores of employees.
“The Supreme Court had ordered scale up-gradation after which the federal government issued orders which have been implemented in all provinces except Punjab. This is a clear violation of the SC orders as the CM has kept this summary, along with other orders for the employees all awaiting benefits, pending. How can we work diligently when the chief minister refuses to pass on due benefits which are being given in other provinces,” said a section officer on the condition of anonymity.
Sources further revealed that employees had not been given their annual increment on the 50 percent salary raise announced by the federal government in 2010. Every year the government extended increments to its employees, considering their basic pay scale, while the Punjab government had not accumulated the addition in salaries.
They further revealed that the federal government had recently increased conveyance allowance for Grade 1 to Grade 19 employees, while the CM had also kept that summary pending by not passing on benefits to government servants.
“The federal government had increased this allowance from Rs 1700 to Rs 2700 for Grade 1 to Grade 15 employees, and Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 for Grade 16 to Grade 19 employees. The provincial government appears to be in no mood to pass on these benefits, despite the finance department having put up the summary long ago,” sources added.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Finance Secretary Tariq Bajwa said, “We are not bound by the federal government orders, they are a separate government while we have our own set up. This matter is under consideration but we will do this on our own volition.”
To a question about obeying the Supreme Court’s orders, he said that federal government employees had moved the court and the government had ordered relief for federal employees, which was not binding on the Punjab government.