Public servants are the most pampered lot. Work or no work, life-long security of service is assured. Only in the rarest of rare case can a government servant be dismissed. Moreover, periodically the employer feels obliged to revise their pay-scales. Weak attempts to link pay rises to performance by the past pay commissions have floundered on the bedrock of political opportunism and blackmail of the employees’ unions. Nor has any government succeeded in enforcing the recommendation to rationalise the staff strength while hiking compensation. The point is simple. The give on the part of the employer is mandatory but anything in return from the employees is always illusory. Ordinary people tend to blame politicians for rotten governance. But politicians are made answerable every five years. But it is the permanent bureaucracy that implements the policy that runs the day-to-day affairs in any government. The lowly babu in the transport department, the constable manning the traffic on a busy intersection is the nearest approximation of government for most of people. Rare is an Indian who is unfamiliar with the irresponsibility and dishonesty of these permanent blots on our system of government.
Regardless of whether they improve their performance, they are set to help themselves to a huge bonanza. Ordinary people, jobless people, might be condemned to suffer without any hope of relief anywhere, but the permanent employees are set to get nearly a quarter more in higher pay and perks following the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission. A three-fold increase in minimum pay, from the present Rs 6,600 to Rs 18,000 is a major hike recommended by the retired Justice A K Mathur panel. But wait, the overlords of the bureaucratic system, the secretaries to the GOI, are in for a much bigger bonanza. Their pay-scale jumps from the existing Rs. 90,000 to Rs.2.50 lakhs. Of course, the new pay scales, to be enforced from 1 January next year, will absorb the existing dearness allowance which at 119 percent is quite substantial. But a big plus of government service is the automatic neutralisation of price-rise. Private sector does not enjoy this kind of privilege, not even the bluest of the blue chips companies are so punctilious in cosseting their employees. In government the conscientious work of the rare ones are assured of the same compensation as the laggards and the shirkers.
An earlier pay panel had sought to link performance, especially at higher echelons, but to no avail. Finding an objective way to reward a three percent higher pay to the performing officers had proved difficult. Indeed, an earlier panel had asked for the abolition of the class-IV posts such as those of peons, water carriers, etc., but nothing came of it. The same panel had called for a 20 percent reduction in the overall payroll but to no avail. Admittedly, there are a couple of novel recommendations. Given the on-going fuss over one-rank, one-pension by the ex-servicemen, anticipating such demands from other sections, the panel has extended the principle to civilian employees as well. Implementing the new pay scales will cost the government over one lakh crore rupees per annum. The outgo might get higher if the dearness allowance rises subsequently. More disturbing is the fact that for the first time, the number of pensioners is higher by some five lakhs over the serving employees, 47 lakhs to 52 lakhs pensioners. Fortunately, the Vajpayee Government had undertaken drastic pension reforms, replacing the old scheme with a new one in which the employees’ own contribution plays a role in determining his pension. Yet, the rising army of pensioners in a country with stressed resources for providing essential public goods such as basic healthcare, education, etc., is a worrying development. Faster growth and a widespread tax-pool is the way out of the mounting burden permanent bureaucracy puts on the nation, especially when its performance continues to be as lackadaisical as at anytime before. In some ways, it is true that it is not ministers but babus who do not work.
