SHILLONG, Nov 18 - Meghalaya Government has accepted the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission and revised the salary of its 80,000 employees.
The additional financial burden on the State exchequer from the revised pay and allowances would be Rs 1,027.17 crore annually, which is 25.8 per cent more than the present pay and allowance.
The decision was announced after a five-hour long Cabinet meeting last night chaired by Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.
He said the new pay structure will come into effect from January 1, 2017 and the employees would be drawing the revised pay from December next.
The Government has also fixed the annual increment to 3 per cent. Sangma further informed that 40 per cent of the arrears would be given this year and the remaining 60 per cent would be provided to the employees in two installments of 30 per cent each in the next two years. In the current fiscal, the Government has to shell out Rs 929 crore owing to the revision, Sangma said.
Under the new pay structure, entry level basic pay of �Grade D employees,� or Level 1, which was earlier Rs 6,500 has been multiplied by 2.68 getting the revised figure of Rs 17,400.
The basic pay of the employees has been uniformly raised 2.68 times from Level 1 to Level 22. Therefore, an employee from Level 22 would now draw a minimum basic pay of Rs 94,600 from the earlier Rs 48,980.
Moreover, the Government has increased the allowances of the employees and has doubled the house rent allowance. Other allowances like travelling, winter, hill, medical etc., has all been hiked. The Government, moreover, has provided Rs 2,000 for an annual medical health check up.
Female employees� maternity leave has been increased from four months to six months. Moreover, male employees would now be able to apply for paternity leave for a period of 15 days.
Not just the revision, the employees were in for more good news as the Chief Minister announced that they would be entitled now with �three assured promotions� in their career from the present two.
The Chief Minister hoped that the revised pay would meet the expectations of the employees and further said that they should, as always, try to live up to the expectations of the people.