New Year Bonanza for Armed Forces

New Delhi In a major New year bonanza for the armed forces, the Prime Minister's Office has informed the Defence Ministry that the armed forces personnel would henceforth have a separate pay commission, which is delinked from the civilian pay panel.

In a communication to the Defence Ministry the PMO also granted the demand for placing 12,000 odd Lieutenant Colonels under equivalence in Navy and Air Force in the pay band four of the sixth central pay commission.

However, the PMO, which considered the recommendations of the ministerial committee headed by External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, said that the pay band four status with a grade pay of Rs 8000 would be accorded to Lieutenant Colonels who were performing a combat role or were ready for combat.

Those Lieutenant Colonels on deputation to other services would receive the pay band four status only when they return to their parent service.

Another demand accepted by the PMO concerned the jawans, for whom the government would restore the 70 per cent pensionary weightage.

Till the government implements the sixth pay commission's recommendations for allowing retired armed forces personnel's lateral entry into paramilitary and central police forces, the 70 per cent weightage would continue.

The present PMO communication, sent to the Defence Ministry in the last week of December, however, is silent on the two other core demands of the armed forces: placing the Lieutenant Generals in the higher administrative grade plus pay scales and bringing grade pay of officers from Captains to Brigadiers on par with their civilian counterparts.

But, conceding to the Defence personnel's demand the PMO said it would set up a high powered committee to review the command and control functions, and the status of the armed forces vis-a-vis that of their civilian and paramilitary counterparts.

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Curfew lifted after 50 hours in Kashmir Valley

The curfew imposed in Kashmir Valley in the wake of seperatist leaders' call for a march was lifted this morning, more than 50 hours after it was enforced.

The curfew, which was lifted at 5 am, had been imposed to thwart a march by separatists to Lal Chowk here yesterday to protest against the continuation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
The decision to lift the curfew, imposed on the midnight of Saturday, was taken by the state government after reviewing the situation in the valley in the day when huge deployment of security forces and sealing of entry and exit points in Srinagar foiled the march.

The authorities decided to withdraw the curfew keeping in mind the difficulties faced by the people, official sources said.

The Coordination Committee, an amalgam of separatist groups, has also given a call for resuming normal activities from today.

A fresh meeting of the separatist conglomerate would be held tomorrow to firm up the next course of action.

The Coordination Committee leaders asked students to appear in examinations, farmers to attend to their crops and business community to resume their normal activities. The people-friendly measures came close on the heels after villagers in three areas - Pahalgam, Kokernag and Sri Gufwara - shouted slogans against the coordination committee for disrupting normal life regularly.

The normalisation call was also given after the business community expressed displeasure as a 15-member delegation of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir Chamber of Commerce delegation is expected to visit later this week to finalise the cross-LoC trade between two parts of Kashmir.

Source: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/oct/071008-Kashmir-curfew.htm