Category Archives: Civil Services

Sixth Pay Commission cometh…

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Long years back, there was this Russian physician called Pavlov. He really loved his dog. He was especially fond of feeding it. Being grandiose, he would ring the bell each time he would feed his dog. This went on for a long time. Soon, the dog, ever the intelligent creature, learnt what the bell meant – it meant food. The moment the bell would ring, he would know food has arrived.1

One fine day the Indian Government recalled the Russian. The particular problem of Sarkar was that there were too many working for them. Of course Sarkar and the people loved to have so many servants working for them. But when payday came, the Sarkar started to get Parkinson’s.2 So, Sarkar got its own bell, like the Russian. He gave it a fancy name – he called it some pay…pay…pay what..ah…Pay Commission! That’s right. Every ten years, he would need a new bell. So far he has bought five. Sarkar tells us he is getting the sixth one.

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Now, Pay Commission is to the Babus what UPSC is to the civil service aspirants. And Pay Commission recommendation is like the UPSC final results. I recall a line from a short story I had read in my college years – “her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood”3. On the Budget Day the FM promised that the 6PC would bring out its award in about a month. Yeah, can you feel the blood rushing?

No, I don’t intend to bring out my own predictions. I would just like to point interested soul to a website that does a better job of tracking it. Go to:
http://sixpaycommission.blogspot.com/

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  1. Stop. I was just joking. You can read the real story here.
  2. It’s not difficult to understand. Remember Amitabh Bachchan. Well, he was the Sarkar in one movie, and he started having Parkinson’s in another movie. The latter was on payday…Okay, that’s a PJ.
  3. Araby by James Joyce.

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Call of Duty

Click to enlargeMany of the people in civil services suffer from a handicap. These people have seen little of professional life, seem less of private sector jobs, and seen only a few of joining letters. I hail from such a group, old and crusty and yet immature in the world of jobs, of interviews and group discussions. Regardless, however, most people fantasize about a their joyous jubilation at the reception of the joining letter, or fondness for the golden crest they imagine, the crisp and thick page, the neat printed alphabets deciding your destiny. Not for the civil servants. For the civil servants there is always a lousy impersonal letter with a curious and long number, filled with antiseptic words from an anonymous cleric. “The government is pleased to inform that…”… I don’t know who is so pleased. When I received the joining instructions for the Foundation Course in Mussoorie from DoPT, I did not think so much about this. I was already anxious to receive something, and when the notice came it was godsent. Now, many months older and wiser in the ways of the government, I was even more scandalized when I received a lousy official correspondence in the form of a joining letter from my state. I wonder if the people in government cannot afford some good paper to print on, and get a good printout on a crested paper. I wonder if those in responsible positions could not afford to put in their signature. For all I know, there is no way to prove if this really came from the government – there is no stamp, no crest, no watermark, no signature. An anonymous, impersonal letter copied to nine places, with my name coming in at seventh position. A letter typed on a sheet of paper the kabadi wala would refuse to take for making packets. Welcome to the land of babus!