Defence Minister A K Antony said on Saturday the grievances of defence services personnel over pay scales would be settled soon and they would be 'getting their pay in new scales by Diwali.'

"We are taking up the issue seriously. We hope we would be able to find a solution to the issue. All of them would be getting their pay in new scales by Diwali," Antony told a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram.

The recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission is by and large an improvement from the previous commission.

"Still there were some issues, and we would be making serious efforts to solve them," he said.

Asked how he viewed the reports that angry service personnel were declining to draw their pay, he shot back, 'nothing like that, these are media reports.'

He said welfare of ex-service personnel, including their re-employment, was also an area of top priority of defence ministry.

Last year 44,000 retired soldiers were re-employed in different sectors. This year the target was 50,000. Talks were also on in this regard with state governments and private sector forums like the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, he said.

Antony termed the decision to offer permanent commission for women officers in the armed forces as 'a major step forward'.

"The file for this has been created. To begin with, permanent commission would be offered to women in certain branches. We have made a start. Further improvement would be made in subsequent stages," he said.

Antony said the government did not want to claim that it was doing a favour to women, as they had every right to join and serve the armed forces. "It is their right. They enjoy the right all over the world", he said.

Asked why the permanent commission was being restricted to certain branches like education and legal services, he said, "Rome was not built in a single day. Let us make a start. It could be improved further".

He said paucity of short-service commission officers was a problem faced by the defence services. Steps were being taken to address this issue.

A proposal to open a new officers training institute to train recruits was under consideration, he said.

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