Antony writes to PM over wages, pension of services men

NEW DELHI: Observing there was "growing discontent" among armed forces personnel over anomalies in pay-related matters, Defence Minister A K Antony has written a letter to the Prime Minister saying if "corrective action" is not taken, the issue might take a "bad turn".

After the letter was sent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a high level-committee under the Cabinet Secretary to address issues such as One Rank One Pension (OROP) and elevation of all Lt Gen-rank officers into a higher pay scale.

In the letter written on June 25, sources said the Defence Minister has written that "there is growing discontentment among the services personnel due to the anomalies in fixation of payment and salaries."

Pushing the case for accepting the demands of serving and retired soldiers, Antony pointed out that the service personnel, exservicemen and family pensioners are "equally agitated" over the anomalies in their salaries. He told the Prime Minister that "unless we take corrective action, things may take a bad turn."

On July 13, the Prime Minister formed a six-member committee under Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, which has been asked by the government to finalise its recommendations and submit its report to Manmohan Singh by August 8.

For serving defence personnel, the committee will look into the issues of having a common pay scale for serving Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs), placing all Lt Gen-rank officers under the higher pay scale grade of Higher Administrative Group Plus (HAG+).

For the large community of exservicemen, the government has tasked the committee to consider the issue of One-Rank-One-Pension which has been the main demand of the services personnel and has seen a lot of them returning their service and gallantry medals to the President in the last few years as a mark of protest.

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CONTEMPT PETITION - ARGUMENTS HEARD IN SC

Contempt petition filed in the Supreme Court came up before the Supreme Bench for arguments.  Advocate appearing in the Court on behalf of Life Insurance Corporation of India argued that there was  no contempt at all as there was no specific amount arrived at as due to the pensioners. Since the amount to be deposited is not quantified, it could not be presumed that there was any contempt of any order of the Court.

The Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioners argued that the amount could be arrived at by LIC as all the data required for calculation was available with LIC and it was up to LIC to decide the quantum.

Court heard these arguments and adjourned the case.  Decision of the Court could be  expected any time now.

ONE RANK ONE PENSION COMMITTE MEETING NEWS

On 18th July 2012, the three service chiefs, led by Admiral Nirmal Verma, Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) met with a high-powered Committee of Secretaries constituted by the Prime Minister to resolve anomalies in the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission award for the Armed Forces.

Although a total of 39 anomalies have been identified by the three services since 2008, they have decided to concentrate on some core issues that directly affect both serving and retired armed forces personnel.

The issues are:

Fixing common pay scales for all JCOs and ORs

Source: NDTV

• Grant of NFU (non-functional upgradation) status to commissioned officers
• Correcting difference in rank pay of commissioned officers
• Extending the HAG+ (Higher administrative Grade Plus) scale to all three star officers
• Granting One-Rank-One-Pension to retired personnel

There have been strong demands from ex-servicemen and from acting servicemen for One-Rank-One-Pay. And to push for their demands further, the three Service chiefs, led by Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Naval chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, along with his colleagues, Chief of Air Staff ACM, NAK Browne and Army Chief General Bikram Singh gave a detailed presentation to the Committee of Secretaries on Wednesday.

The six-member committee, comprising the Cabinet Secretary with the Defence Secretary, Secretary Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Secretary DoPT, Expenditure Secretary and Principal Secretary to PM, as members  was set up by the Prime Minister after a Rajya Sabha panel last year recommended granting One Rank One Pension to the retired defence personnel. The government has asked the committee to submit its report by August 8.

There is a buzz in the corridors of power that the Prime Minister wants to make a grand announcement from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15 and therefore the deadline of August 8!

For the uninitiated, the One-Rank-One-Pay scheme implies that uniform pension be paid to the armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement, and any future enhancement in the rates of pension be automatically passed on to past pensioners.

But the issue that has upset and angered serving defence personnel is NFU.

For those not in uniform it needs a bit of an explanation.

Buckling under pressure from Group A organised Services under the Central Government like Border Roads Organisation, Military Engineering Services, Postal Services, the Sixth Pay Commission gave them a special concession.

It allowed the officers in these services to be placed in a grade pay scale equivalent to an IAS officer two years behind that particular IAS batch. For example if the 1992 batch of the IAS officer got placed in the Joint Secretary grade in 2012, all Group A organised officers of the 1990 batch would automatically get the pay and allowance equivalent to the 1992 IAS batch, irrespective of the post and place they are serving in. That is the upgradation will be done on a ‘non-functional’ basis.

This has brought in huge functional problems in day-to-day affairs when military officers have to work in close coordination with MES Civil Officers, BRO Civil Officers, IPS Officers in BSF, CRPF, ITBP, Defence Accts (IDAS), Test Audit (IA&AS), Ordnance Factory Board etc, with whom Defence forces officers interact regularly, will now get the salary and grade pay of Joint Secretary/Major General (Grade Pay Rs. 10000/-) after 22 years of service, and will draw the pay of Additional Secretary to Government of India which is equal to a Lieutenant General (Grade Pay Rs. 12000/-) in 32 years of service whereas military officers senior to them in rank and service will get less grade pay at the same level of service thereby creating a functional disparity giving rise to insubordination and subtle non-compliance.

Military officials have pointed out that this has adversely affected organisational command and control in multi-cadre environment. It also led to lowering the status of Armed Forces Officials vis-a-vis organized Group A officers and IPS Officers. Organized Group A and IPS Officers reach HAG (Higher Administrative Grade) Scale at 32 years while only 0.2 per cent of Armed Forces Officers can ever reach that level.

With over 97 per cent Armed Forces Officers retiring in the Grade Pay of 8700, their exclusion from the NFU is seen as grossly unfair. This differential not only disturbs financial parity, it pushes down the Defence services in status as even direct recruit officers of Group B services attain a better pay and promotional avenue and manage to reach the level of Joint Secretary/Major General before retiring.

Both the OROP and granting the NFU status to Armed Forces officials is not going to be expensive either.

According to calculations done by the military, the annual outgo for granting One -Rank-One-Pension to the approximately 21 lakh ex-servicemen would not be more than Rs. 1300 crore. Similarly the NFU status, if granted, will cost the exchequer a mere Rs. 70 crore annually but will go a long way in restoring the pride and status of the armed forces’ officers.

The other core issues are minor in comparison but important nevertheless.

PRE-2006 MODIFIED PARITY CASE LATEST NEWS

• Case Reg: MODIFIED PARITY for Pre-2006 Case W.P. 1535/2012 Reg: Appeal against Judgment of CAT Delhi (in OA 655-2010) reg. Modified Parity for Pre-2006 Pensioners, came up before a new Bench (of Hon'ble Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad and Hon’ble Justice Siddharth Mridul) at item. 13) in Delhi High Court on 17.7.2012. It was adjourned for hearing on 29th November, 2012 (as no earlier date was available with the New Bench before which the case had been enlisted).

PRE-2006 PENSIONERS CASE HEARING ADJOURNED TO 29 NOV 2012

• Case Reg: MODIFIED PARITY for Pre-2006 Case W.P. 1535/2012 Reg: Appeal against Judgment of CAT Delhi (in OA 655-2010) reg. Modified Parity for Pre-2006 Pensioners, came up before a new Bench (of Hon'ble Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad and Hon’ble Justice Siddharth Mridul) at item. 13) in Delhi High Court on 17.7.2012. It was adjourned for hearing on 29th November, 2012 (as no earlier date was available with the New Bench before which the case had been enlisted).

COMMITTEE COSTITUED TO LOOK INTO PAY & PENSION RELATED ISSUES OF DEFENCE FORCES & EX-SERVICEMEN

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Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Cabinet Secretariat

13-July-2012 18:03 IST

Govt constitutes Committee to look into pay and pension related issues of defence services personnel and ex-servicemen

The Government has decided to constitute a Committee, under the chairpersonship of Cabinet Secretary, to look into pay and pension related issues of relevance to defence services personnel and ex-servicemen. The other members of the Committee will be:

(i) Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister
(ii) Defence Secretary
(iii) Secretary, D/o Expenditure
(iv) Secretary, D/o Ex-Servicemen’s Welfare
(v) Secretary, D/o Personnel and Training

The Committee’s ‘terms of reference’ will be to look into the following issues relating to:

(i) Defence services personnel:
• Common pay-scale for in-service JCOs/ORs
• Initial pay-fixation of Lt. Col/Colonel and Brigadier/equivalent
• Review and enhancement of grade pay
• Placing of all Lts General in HAG+ scale
• Grant of non-functional upgradation (NFU) to armed forces personnel

(ii) Ex-servicemen:
• One-rank one-pension
• Enhancement of family pension
• Dual family pension
• Family pension to mentally/physically challenged children of armed forces personnel on marriage

The Department of Expenditure will service the Committee. The Committee may co-opt any other member. The Committee will finalize its recommendations and submit its report to the Prime Minister by 8th August, 2012.

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SC/LM

DELHI HIGHCO9URT TO HEAR PRE-2006 PENSIONERS CASE ON 17/07/2012

THE DELHI HIGH COURT IS LIKELY TO HEAR THE REST OF THE ARGUMENTS OF THE  PRE -2006 PENSIONERS ADVOCATE  ON 17/07/2006.IT IS MOST LIKELY  THAT THIS WILL BE THE LAST  PHASE OF THE CASE AT DELHI HIGHCOURT.IT MAY DELIVER THE VERDICT WITH IN FEW WEEKS

Defence Pay and Pensions Committee set up, will consider one rank one pension

New Delhi, July 13 (ANI): The government on Friday decided to constitute a committee to look into pay and pension related issues of defence services personnel and ex-servicemen.
The committee will be headed by a Cabinet Secretary. The other members of the Committee will be Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Defence Secretary, Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Secretary, Department of Ex-Servicemen's Welfare and Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training
The Committee's 'terms of reference' will be to look into issues relating to Defence services personnel, common pay scale for in-service JCOs/Ors , Initial pay-fixation of Lt. Col/Colonel and Brigadier/equivalent , review and enhancement of grade pay, placing of all Lt. Generals in HAG+ scale and grant of non-functional upgradation (NFU) to armed forces personnel
The committee will also look into issues relating to ex-servicemen, particularly one- rank: one-pension, enhancement of family pension, dual family pension, family pension to mentally/physically challenged children of armed forces personnel on marriage
The Department of Expenditure will service the committee, and it may co-opt any other member.
The committee will finalise its recommendations and submit its report to the Prime Minister by August 8, 2012. (ANI)

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