Employee group concerned about delay in Lavasa Committee report implementation

A Jammu-based employees organisation on Sunday urged the Centre to implement the recommendations of the Ashok Lavasa Committee report ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls to benefit lakhs of lower class employees and pensioners. The high-level Lavasa panel submitted its report on allowances to 47 lakh government employees to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in April 2017.

"The delay in accepting the recommendations of the Ashok Lavasa Committee report by the central government has left the employees concerned," president National Mazdoor Conference Subash Shastri said here. "We urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Finance minister to take a final decision in this regard before the announcement of the upcoming parliamentary elections," he said.

He said the Lavasa Committee had proposed a minimum scale pension of lower class employees and pensioners to Rs 21,000. The committee was constituted in the wake of implementation of the seventh pay commission by the central government for removal of pay anomalies in the pay structure of lower class cadre of both the state and the central government, Shastri said, adding that it will be a major issue in the upcoming polls.

"The government employees and the pensioners constitute a sizeable voter constituency and this constituency can be a determining factor in the electoral considerations," he said.

He also appealed to the governor's administration in the state to ensure timely disbursement of long pending wages of daily rated workers to facilitate them to celebrate upcoming festivals like Holi and Navratras with peace of mind. Shastri urged the administration to set up separate wage heads for regular disbursement of monthly wages of these daily rated workers till their regularisation. 

(With inputs from agencies.)