7th Pay Commission has been implemented now for the first time in an Indian state. The Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti led Jammu and Kashmir government today announced that it has given the order to implement the report recommendations that will hike state government employees salary by over 20%. Courtesy this move Jammu and Kashmir became the first state in India to implement the pay panel report. The good news for government employees extends to the fact that the order is to be implemented this month itself, virtually with immediate effect. April therefore, will see employees get fatter salary packages in their accounts. “As already announced by Govt, the employees to draw revised scales of pay from current month”, the Jammu and Kashmir information department said in a series of tweets.

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FM Altaf Bukhari said that Jammu and Kashmir is the first Indian state that has ordered the implementation of 7th Pay Commission and that this is being done despite the state's revenues not being in the best condition to meet this big outgo. The big move by the state government follows the earlier promise by CM Mehbooba Mufti and now that vow stands fulfilled. It was way back in June 2017 that CM Mufti announced that 7th Pay Commission would be implementated in April 2018. She heads a coalition government made up of her People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Jammu and Kashmir government employees are thrilled, but at the pan India level, awaiting some good news of their own are their central government colleagues who have been demanding a big pay hike over and above the ones recommended by the pay panel that they are getting, but they have been greeted by either a wall of silence or denials of any such proposals being with the government.

Also, time after time, there is some unfavourable news or the other coming up. The most recent one is that RBI data showed 7th Pay Commission linked hike in HRA has led to a bump in inflation. Nevertheless, the government employees are pinning hopes that the Centre will spread some largesse come election time. And they have been waiting patiently and will have to wait some more for 2019 to roll around. However, even then, will the Centre hike the pay by a fitment factor of 3.00 times or by 3.68 times is unclear - the latter number is what staff wants citing rise of inflation eating into their pay packets.