Fitment Committee likely to submit report to Odisha CM by Saturday

Bhubaneswar: Good news for Odisha government employees!

The Fitment Committee appointed by the state government to determine modalities for implementation of recommendations of the 7^th Pay Commission for its employees is likely to submit its report to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a day or two, a source in the government revealed.

Fitment Committee headed by Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan after a meeting of the Committee in the last week of April had sought another 45 days to submit its draft report.

Balakrishnan had then said that since few issues were required to be resolved and the Committee needed 45 more days to submit its report while saying that it could even happen earlier.

It was the second extension sought by the Fitment Committee to submit its report, the earlier one being on February 28 when it had sought an extension for two months.

It may be noted here that the state government had on October 31, last year, constituted a six-member Fitment Committee for determining modalities for implementation of recommendations of the 7^th Pay Commission for its employees.

By appointing Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan as the head of the Fitment Committee, Home Secretary Asit Tripathy, Finance Secretary Tuhin Kant Pandey, Forest and Environment Secretary Suresh Mohapatra, Special Secretaries in the Department of Finance A K Meena and Aswini Mishra as members, the government had directed it to submit its report within four months.

The Fitment Committee apart from determining fitment of scales, ranks, allowances, and pensions would also determine the burden and impact of the revision on the state government’s finances.

The Fitment Committee has taken opinion and representations from various service associations of state government employees.

Notably, the Odisha Karmachari Sangram Samiti, a body of state government employees’ had on Thursday last threatened to go on state-wide strike if the government delayed implementation of the  7th Pay Commission recommendations.

It will be worth mentioning here that the Central government has implemented the recommendations of the 7^th Pay Commission with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.