No differences with govt on pay panel: Army chief

NO DIFFERENCES: Army chief Deepak Kapoor cleared doubts about differences between Government and defence forces.

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New Delhi: The armed forces on Sunday said that they had no differences with the Government, amid reports that Defence Minister A K Antony had conveyed his unhappiness over their unprecedented refusal to implement the pay commission notification and got them around to accept the revised salaries temporarily.

"I just want to clarify that this talk of differences between the armed forces and the Government, I think is not right," Army chief General Deepak Kapoor told reporters after laying a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyothi in India Gate to mark Gunners Day.

"The fact that the Defence Ministry, Defence Minister and the Prime Minister are with us shows that he (Antony) is also part of the Government, as we are. So there are no differences. I think it has been played up a little incorrectly," Kapoor said.

Giving defence personnel reasons to cheer before Diwali, the Government had on Saturday ordered release of their ad-hoc arrears for the current year this week, even as the Government said the armed forces would submit fresh salary vouchers on Saturday, paving the way for the 1.5 million personnel to take home the revised pay on October 1.

But the "discriminatory" pay commission report would come under fresh scrutiny with PM Manmohan Singh, who is abroad, setting up a high-level ministerial committee yesterday to address their grievances.