At Asiatic Society, same pay for sweepers, officers

KOLKATA: Rules have been bent at The Asiatic Society, Kolkata — a centrally funded institution — to breed an egalitarian salary pattern, where a ‘safaiwallah’ has the same pay grade as a section officer or an accounts officer. The outcomeis obvious. The cleaner or attendant are reluctant to do his work while hissuperiors feel disillusioned by the system. Moreover, this weird pay structurehas pushed the Society’s annual non-Plan expenditure up several notcheswith an additional annual liability of `84 lakh and another `2 crore asarrears.A case in point is the gross pay of Sushil Chanda, asweeper. Till June 2011, Chanda’s gross pay was `26,763 with a basiccomponent of `13,410 basic. But his gross pay now, after the revision is July,stands at `34,456 —a monthly hike of `7,693 that even some corporatehouses can’t match. Similarly, Group D attendant Iqbal Hossain’s paypacket after the revision is `38,642, a monthly hike of around `12,000!They are no exceptions. The Council of the Asiatic Society took thedecision to increase salaries of a total 98 employees in its meeting on June 27,2011. A “two-man committee” comprising Swapan Pramanik and DilipGhosh fixed the payscales and the Council accepted the recommendations.Consequently, each of these employees got an average hike of `7,000 a month,pushing up the Society’s total liability by `7 lakh a month and `84 lakhannually. The council didn’t even refer the matter to the Standing FinanceCommittee. The Asiatic Society Act, 1984 clearly states: “There shall be aStanding Finance Committee of the Society to consider and advise the Council onall matters having financial implications composed of three nominees from theGovernment of India, one from the Government of West Bengal, and three nomineesof the Council ...” Perhaps apprehensive that its decision maybe questioned by the finance ministry, the council has kept an escape route inits resolution to hike salaries. It has asked employees to “give anundertaking to the effect that any overdrawal/overpayment made, due toinadver-tance/faulty fixation or otherwise shall be recovered from theemployees”. The pay mess at Asiatic Society wasn’tcreated in a day. Documents with TOI reveal it all began in January this yearafter the council absorbed seven casual employees under the Group D category oncompassionate grounds and placed them under ‘Pay Band 1’ with agrade pay of Rs 1900 when the maximum grade pay for a Group D employee is Rs1800. The payscale for these Group D staff at the entry point was fixed at Rs5,200-20,200. The decision had a cascading effect. The Society’s highlyunionised Group D employees started pressuring the authorities for the same payas the privileged seven. The Society eventually gave in and set up a“two-man committee” to fix a new payscale under the Centre’sModified Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACPS). The committee, however,skipped pay bands flouting the MACPS norms that “envisage placingemployees in the immediate next higher grade pay in case the employee did notget promotion within at least 10 years of service”. It decided to make anexception and skipped at least three grades to fix such an abnormal payscale onthe ground that the Asiatic Society didn’t have some of the“intermediate pay grades” like in the centralgovernment.It’s surprising that a Society run by accomplishedadministrators — some of them have had stints in the state assembly and inParliament — would land itself in such a mess. Some of the biggest namesin the state’s political circles, like former finance minister AsimDasgupta’s brother and CPM loyalist Atish Dasgupta, West Bengal PradeshCongress working president Pradip Bhattacharya, Trinamool Congress MLA TapasRay, and another CPM loyalist Swapan Pramanik, hold positions in theSociety.Along-time member of the Society, who was in the know ofthings, said on the condition of anonymity the financial muddle calls for a“special audit” to set the records right. The Centre had ordered onesuch audit in 2009.In making such an abnormal salary revision, theSociety has triggered a chain reaction. In a bid to pacify employees in thehigher grades, such as assistant maintenance engineer or senior stenographer,the Council again skipped the immediate higher pay band under MACPS and placedanother 44 employees ‘in Pay Band II’ with a payscale of Rs 9,300-Rs34,800.But Pramanik, a member of the two-man committee andofficiating general secretary, saw nothing wrong in the pay revision. “Theprocedure was duly approved in the Council meeting, where two Government ofIndia nominees were present. It is not mandatory to send all the proposals tothe Standing Finance Committee,” he said, adding: “I haven’tcome across any such complaint (against salary revisions).”