7th pay commission: Employees of this state will get pay hike from Diwali

While around 50 lakh central government employees are still waiting for hike in basic salary beyond the recommendations of the seventh pay commission, the government employees in Maharashtra are set for a pay hike from Diwali this year.

The state government will implement recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission for its employees from Diwali (which falls in November this year), finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar told PTI today.

"The Seventh Pay Commission will be our Diwali gift to employees," he said. The decision will benefit 19 lakh government employees across the state.

It will put a financial burden of Rs 21,530 crore on the state exchequer, Mungantiwar said. "The finance department made provisions of Rs 10,000 crore in its annual budget presented in March this year," he said.

The remaining provisions will be made through supplementary demands or in the next year's budget, he said.

The government is also considering the demand for granting child care leave (CCL) for two years (730 days) to women government employees and 15 days paternal leave for male staffers, Mungantiwar said.

The state government is also studying a proposal to start a five-day week working system for its employees, he said. "The proposal for increasing the working hours of government employees by 15 minutes against a weekly off on every Saturday is being studied," he added. 

Meanwhile, many reports are doing the rounds that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might announce the pay hike beyond recommendations of the seventh pay commission on August 15. However, the government  in the Parliament had already denied giving any hike beyond the 7th CPC recommendations. 

Earlier, the Minister of State for Finance P. Radhakrishnan in Lok Sabha had said that the Narendra Modi government is not planning to give any hike in minimum basic salary beyond the recommendations of the seventh pay commission.  

Besides, the employees' hope came to life once again when the Modi government had recently hiked MSP. Many feel that the MSP is just the beginning of a slew of measures that the government would be introducing. The government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) of Kharif crops to 1.5 times the cost of production.

(With inputs from PTI)