NEW DE®HIl'Fdb It Indies leaders have been urged to slash more than a million government jobs over the next decade in a drastic overhaul of the country's public sector and bureaucracy. officials said yesterday. reports AFP.

The Pay Commission said a third of the country's 3.3 million government employees should be axed, but those retained should have their salaries trebled.

The recommendation from the government-appointed review body, which are likely to be enforced in full by the country's cabinet, will cost an estimated 112 billion rupees (3.2 billion dollars) annually.

The Commission believes it will lead to a slimmer, more efficient public sector, which includes defence, railways, banking and insurance, inline with India's moves towards a free-market economy.

It had told Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram the cuts could start with the scrapping of 350.000 federal Jobs which are vacant, officials said here.

While calling for salaries to be increased three-fold, the panel set a ceiling of 30,000 ru-

pees (857 dollars} b month arid-" set the minimum salary at 2,440 rupees (69 dollars).

The Indian public sector is renowned for overmanning and low productivity. Government employees are grossly underpaid in comparison to the private sector, with experts saying this contributes to corruption.

The proposals drew immediate flak from trade unions.

'We are not at all happy with the pay proposals because they further widen the differentials between the subordinate staff and others," Darshan Lal Sachdeva, Secretary of the All India Trade Unions Congress said.

"We are not opposed to streamlining as long as there are no job cuts. It can be achieved with scientific rationalisation."

Sushanto Sen, a Director of the Confederation of Indian Industry. said he welcomed the move.

"This should have come about ages ago. But even now I feel that, at least at the higher levels, salaries should be increased much, much more," he said.