Trust vote won’t stop decision on pay panel

Babudom can take it easy. They will get their pay hikes soon, irrespective of how the Manmohan Singh government performs at next week’s trust vote in the Lok Sabha.

Even if the Congress-led coalition were to lose the trust vote, it would not mean that work would not continue in the government. The Cabinet would have to continue to take decisions, in matters like the recommendations of the pay commission, a Union minister told HT on Thursday, confident this situation would not arise. More than 30 lakh employees would benefit from the recommendations.

The commission’s recommendations are under examination by a committee of secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrashekhar. The committee is broadly understood to have firmed up its report, except a few tricky areas like demand for more money to defence personnel.

The cabinet secretary was last scheduled to make a presentation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and some senior ministers at a meeting earlier this week. This meeting, however, has not taken place because the political leadership has been too busy trying to cobble up support. A senior finance ministry functionary said this exercise would be taken forward after the trust vote.