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| Headlines Vol. 1 Issue 28-29 | Dec 7-Dec 21 , 1998 |
The government employees of Tripura have threatened to go on a hunger strike if the State Government fails to implement the recommendations of the Fourth Pay commission by December 7.
Secretary-general of the employees co-ordination committee and former MP Ajay Biswas talking to the press revealed that unless the State Government issued necessary notification by December 7, the co-ordination committee would serve a notice on the government confirming the fast-unto-death programme.
On the other hand, the State Government has cited resource constraint as the reason for non-implementation of the recommendations. The State Government, it is learnt, is waiting for the announcement of the 11th Finance Commission on non-plan funds for the States. The State Government is hopeful that the recommendations will increase the non-plan allocation of the State which would help it overcome the resource crunch.
But the co-ordination committee leaders were not willing to buy the theory of the State Government. The leaders said that the third Left Front Government constituted the fourth pay commission with effect from December 1996 with clear directives to submit its final recommendations within a year. But the report was finally submitted in August this year after the commission got two extensions.
The leaders alleged that since then the State Government has been sitting over the report even after earmarking Rs. 200 crore for the implementation of the recommendations in this year’s budget.
The leaders are also of the view that State Government will not get any extra fund for non-plan expenditure unless it implements the recommendations of the fourth pay commission. Explaining this point, the leaders said that finance commission functions on the basis of hard-and-fast policies and principles and Tripura will never get anything more than its due as a special category State. The leaders further stated that the finance commission first uses to verify the committed liabilities of the State Government. The leaders said that unless the State Government implements the finance commission’s recommendations well in advance through formal notification, the same cannot be claimed as liability and that the finance commission will never reimburse it. The leaders also pointed out that the second Left Front government and the Congress-TUJS government had also committed the same mistake.
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