Tired of the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities in sorting out his pay arrears, a 66-year-old retired Naval official from here has been running from pillar to post. N Vasavan of Thevara, who retired from the MES at Naval Base Kochi in 2005, after 42 years of service, has even approached the Defence Minister seeking his intervention. But that also turned out to be a futile exercise.He was one of the 10 percentage of the senior UDCs who were granted a special pay for handling discernible duties and responsibilities of complex natures.
The fifth Central Pay Commission has recommended a special pay-scale for such UDCs. Though other departments extended the renewed scale from January 1996, the MES extended
it from June-July 1999 only. After the affected UDCs approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the tribunal directed the department to fix their pay as Assistant from January 1996. “Out of the 17 applicants, eight were my juniors.
They were promoted, but I was not considered. When I applied, I was told by the Ministry of Defence that the order should not be quoted as a precedent,” Vasavan pointed out.
Later, he approached the CAT Ernakulam Bench. Though the tribunal also directed the Defence Ministry (MoD) to implement the order, no action was taken.
“Later, the MoD approached the High Court and the Supreme Court, but they also ordered that the CAT order should be implemented. Even after all these, they are not ready to implement the order.
“That’s when I approached Defence Minister A K Antony, through P I Rajeev MP pointed out that I’m being harassed. But to this date, no reply has been received,” said Vasavan.
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