It is with a sense of public service that most bureaucrats join service. Of course, some may lose their idealism on the way. Why is the question of bureaucrats being a privileged lot being raised because of the Seventh Pay Commission?
Any pay commission merely merges the current dearness allowance with the old scale and adds another 10 per cent or so to the total current emoluments to develop a new scale. The revised pay is fixed in the new scale according to a fitment formula. The overall increase this time has been the lowest ever. It’s no bonanza; bonanzas are for the private sector, where you have stock options, bonuses etc. Much is made of the higher start at the lowest levels of peons and drivers compared to what the private sector offers. But government has to be an enlightened and model employer and fix the salaries conforming to the overall national wage policy.
The market value of bureaucrats is evident in the exodus at the middle- and the top-rung to private sector jobs, even after retirement. They obviously command a market value, so they should be suitably paid or the government would lose them.
In countries like India, there is a social premium on government service. People don’t go there just for money but also for prestige in society. Witness top lawyers earning millions forgoing their income to become high court or Supreme Court judges on meagre government emoluments. If some of the brightest young of the country want to join the civil services and make a career, they must be nurtured and retained.
(T.N.R. Rao is a former petroleum secretary.)
