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FlashFLASH**** UNION CABINET APPROVED OROP REVISION FROM 01/07/2019 & ARREARES WILL BE PAID IN FOUR INSTALLMENTS**** New ***** *UNION CABINET APPROVED OROP REVISION FROM 01/07/2019 & ARREARES WILL BE PAID IN FOUR INSTALLMENTS
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  • Monday 19 December 2022

    SUPREME COURT ORDERS RECTIFICATION OF OROP ANOMALIES

    MoD had approached SC against the order passed by AFT Kochi wherein grant of same pension from 22 years QS to 33 years QS was held incorrect and MoD was directed to remove the anomaly. There is also a mention of OMJC report in AFT Kochi order. SC has dismissed the appeal filed by MoD and directed to remove the anomaly expeditiously preferable within four months.

    Saturday 17 December 2022

    THE PRESENT STATUS OF OROP REVISION AS DIPICTED BY BISWASDA THROUGH A CARTOON

    A CARTOON BY BISWASDA

    GIST OF THE SPARSH SEMINAR HELD AT NEW DELHI ON 14th DEC 2022

     Dear Sir,

    1. CGDA organised a seminar on SPARSH in New Delhi on 14 Dec 2022. It was  titled Raksha Pension Samadhaan Ayojana. Mr Giridhar Aramane, IAS, Defence Secretary was the Chief guest. The Adjt Gen from Army and his counterparts from Navy and IAF attended the seminar. Secretary Defence Finance also attended the event. Large number of Ex-Servicemen attended the event. YouTube Channel of Sainik Samachar broad cast the event live. The speeches were not very audible. Whatever I could make out from various speeches and power point presentation by Def Accts Dept officers is given in the succeeding paras.

    2. The salient features of the presentation made by many is as under: -

    (a) Pension shall not be stopped.

    (b) All pensioners shall be given a smart card which contains all details like PPO, Pension slip etc.

    (c) The Defence Secretary promised that till all the glitches are removed from SPARSH and made it user friendly, it will not be thrust on the pensioners.

    Addl CGDA  

    3. In his presentation, he covered many aspects of SPARSH.

    (a) Thorough planning was done to make migration into SPARSH easy.

    (b) Payment of pension shall be done on the last working day through banks from where the pensioner is drawing his pension.

    (c) There shall be no delay in disbursal of pension. In the legacy system there was delay in remittance of pension by three to six months.

    (d) As on date 19.80 lakh pensioners have been migrated. The present migration is about 1 lakh new pensioners per month.

     

    (e) Commencement of Migration.

    Service Date of Migration No of Pensioners Migrated No of Pensioners sanctioned pension Percentage of Migration (in%) No of Pensioners

    Received Pension

    Army Aug 2021 70,021 68,860 99.77 68581

    Navy Jun 2021 4,068 3,972 97.81 1,541

    IAF Feb 2021 10,371 10,209 98.40 10,154

    Def  Civilians Oct 2020 26,341 25,826 98.04 26,062

    4. Problems Encountered.

     (a) Data in PPOs of earlier retires of pre – 1960 are illegible.

    (b) Identification of pensioners – Very difficult.

    (c) 1 lakh Gurkha pensioners are not yet migrated.

    (d) Aadhaar Card and mobile nos were not supplied by banks and other PDAs in some cases.

    (e) Wrong payment of commutation was detected.

    (f) 40% of pensioners were not paid correct pension (by banks/treasuries).

    (g) Unless data of those not yet migrated, further migration is put on hold.

    (h) User id and password will be given within 15 days of migration.

    (j) ECHS sought to be integrated with SPARSH.

    (k) Grievances can be sent in five modes like email, SMS, WhatsApp, Call centre of PCDA (Pensions), from home, through CSCs / Banks etc.

    (l) CGDA concluded MOU with CSCs. Initially it was only 1,100 but expanded to 4.70 lakhs such that every village has CSC.

    (m) SBI, PNB, Bank of Baroda, HDFC, DIAV, Record Offices are connected for easy transfer of data / grievances. Banks also will act as SPARSH nodal centres.

    (m) Smart Card will be issued to all pensioners containing all data. It can be used for availing benefits offered by Railways, Airlines, CSD, telecoms companies, interest subsidy offered by banks / State govts, concession offered in any type of purchase, home loans by banks etc.

    Mr Himanshu Tripathi, Dy CDA from Office of PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj

    5. SPARSH  is a learning process for the Def Accts Dept staff. The software of SPARSH is being improved with receipt of inputs from social medial, YouTube channels, Ex-Servicemen Associations and Ex-Servicemen who lodge grievances. 

    6. Annual Life Certificate (ALC). Many complained though they submitted life certificate from banks no acknowledgment is given to them. The Min of Def is kind enough to extend period of submission of ALC from one month (November) to three months (till 31 Jan 2023). As on date the SPARSH received the following number of ALCs and the same have been uploaded into SPARSH.

    (a) Jeevan Pramaan - 7,50,000

    (b) DLC - 71,600

    (c) MLC - 40,500

    (d) Date of Submission. Pensioner has now the freedom to submit his ALC any month of his choice and it is not restricted to November only.

    7. Data Collected from Banks and other PDAs out of 20 lakh Pensioners.

     (a) Aadhaar Cards - 17,30,000

     (b) PAN Cards - 13,84,000

     (c) Mobile Nos - 18,77,000

     (d) The data will continue to be collected every month till all 33 lakh pensioners are migrated.

    (e) Updating Mobile Nos, Email Address, Postal Address etc. Provision has been made in the software by which the pensioner can update his mobile no, Email Address and postal address.

    (d) 2,50,000 pensioners do not have Aadhaar cards.

    (e) Status of Migration. Pensioner can see whether he is migrated to SPARSH or not by going into portal of SPARSH. A link is given where one has to enter his Aadhaar No / mobile no / service no etc.

    (f) SMS will be sent once a pensioner is migrated.

    (g) Pension will be credited only on the last working day.

    (h) Identification of defence civilians like in MES, BRO, Ordnance Factories, Civilians working in various Armed Forces establishments like Army Base workshops, CODs, CADs, formation HQs, Ministry of Defence etc has become problematic.

    (j) Pension slips of banks is different. Hence delay in standardising all of them.

    (k) Issue of Corr PPOs is delayed. But the same is being expedited.

    (l) Income Tax Deduction. There are problems in deducting correct income tax. More work is required to deduct correct amount of income tax.

    (m) NRIs. Now NRIs can submit their annual life certificate after it is issued by Indian embassy / high commission/ consulate through email.

    (n) Dedicated YouTube Channel.  Pensioners are advised to watch the videos on various aspects of SPARSH. There are some channels gives incorrect or deliberately wrong information about SPARSH.

    Mr Vijay Kumar Singh, IAS, Secretary, Min of Def.

    8. He covered the following issues.

    (a) Speed of migration is fast hence many errors have crept in.

    (b) CPENGRMS give us many complaints from pensioners.

    (c) CSCs which are in villages are to be strengthened for defence pensions.

    Mr Giridhar Aramane, IAS, Defence Secretary

    9. He covered the following point in his address to the participants.

    (a) 2 crore farmers were given Direct Benefit Transfer of financial assistance by seeking three data viz (i) Mobile no (ii) bank account no (iii) Aadhar No. The data was collected in just six months from 30 States and Union Territories.

    (b) Not understood why Aadhaar name is asked from the pensioners. It should have been  Aadhaar Number which is unique to the pensioners. The mobile no, service no and bank account no are unique. This has caused lot of anguish and unrest among the pensioners. TCS should modify their software.

    (c) He promised that unless all problems in SPARSH being faced by the pensioners, it will not become mandatory.

    (d) SPARSH should be more user friendly.

    (e) Lt Gen Ponnappa, Adjt Gen met him and gave out list of problems pensioners are facing in SPARSH. Data rectification is not being done in SPARSH.

    (f) Def Accts Dept is one of the oldest Government departments and has lot of experience.

    (g) TCS and SPARSH team should work to resolve the problems of pensioners facing in use of SPARSH.

    (h) There is a need for Defence Secretary, Secretary Def Min (ESW),  CGDA to sit and work together to sort out all problems faced by pensioners in SPARSH.

    (j) Defence Secretary will to monitor progress of SPARSH.

    Warm regards,

    Brig CS  Vidyasagar (Retd(

    Camp: PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj

    Date : 15 Dec 2022

    Thursday 8 December 2022

    PRESENCE OF UNPRECEDENTED CONSOLIDATION OF EX-SERVICEMEN VOTES IN HIMACHAL

     Himachal is a state which has maximum number Ex-servicemen Population. This sizable number of ESM voters were taken for granted by the Party in Power in the recently concluded state election since they were traditionally ruling Party voters. Unlike other states the Ex-servicemen electorate is a decisive factor in Himachal. The Ruling Party underestimated their Sentiments, ensured their defeat which otherwise should have been avoided if proper attention were given to their problems. The Non-Implementation of OROP revision as ordered by HSC & the fear sycosis in the minds of Ex-servicemen folk due to Stoppage Pension on account of improper Implementation of the new Defence Pension System known as SPARSH earned their anger which compelled them for a different voting pattern. Hence it is obvious that there was a consolidation of Ex-servicemen votes in Himachal which may spread to other states if the legitimate grievances of Ex-servicemen were not addressed.

    Tuesday 1 November 2022

    KNOW THE BREAKUP OF YOUR SPARSH PPO NUMBER

    1.The first phase of Migration of Pension from Legacy System to SPARSH was commenced wef 17 November 2021. During this phase around 5 Lakh Post 2016 Defence Pensioners (From Jan 2016 to Aug 2021) were migrated to SPARSH by the end of April 2022. 

    From 23 August 2022, the second phase of Migration of Pension started and during this phase the Pre 2016 Defence Pensioners are being migrated to SPARSH. The process of migration is still in progress right now. Some of the Migrated Pensioners have also received e-mail/SMS from SPARSH regarding creation of their SPARSH account, Pensioner Id, Username & Password to login their portal. 

    2.  In due course of time, every SPARSH Pensioner will be allotted with a 12 digit Pensioner ID number. It should be kept in mind that, your 12 digit Pensioner ID is your SPARSH PPO No too. Another important fact is that, if you add 01 to your Pensioner ID as Suffix, then this 14 digit number will be your SPARSH Username to login your SPARSH account. 

    For example, if your Pensioner ID is 236201500203, then your

    SPARSH PPO No is also the same 236201500203 and your Username is

    23620150020301.

    The Password as forwarded by SPARSH, is a System Generated Password & it should be changed immediately and a  new Strong Password should be created by the Pensioner for the Safety & Security of his SPARSH Account. Ok

    3.    Now let's analyse how the SPARSH PPO number has been allotted to the Pensioners. Actually the SPARSH PPO number is assigned in a logical way and here each digit has its own indication. 

    4.   The SPARSH PPO No is a 12 digit number. Out of 12 digits, the first three digits ( from L to R) indicate the Service and Category of the Pensioner. Here Service refers to - Army, Navy, Air Force & Defence Civillian and Category refers to - Officer & Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR). Details of the same is enumerated below --

    101 - Army Officers

    102 - Army officers of AMC, RVC, MNS, ADC & TA

    201 to 250 - Army PBOR

    301 - Navy Officers

    401 - Navy PBOR

    501 - Air Force Officers

    601 - Air Force PBOR

    402 - Defence Civilian Officers

    701 - IDAS (Indian Defence Accounts Service) Officers

    801 - Defence Civilian PBOR. 

    5.    For further clarity of the above facts, let's take an example of a SPARSH PPO No, so to say - 236201500203. For better understanding, let's re-arrange the 12 digits of this PPO number as under -

    2 36-2015-00203.

    (a)    The 1st digit ( 2) indicates the Pensioner is from Army (because 1 & 2 is allotted to Army). And the 2nd & 3rd digit ( 36) indicate the Record office of the Pensioner. Record Offices of the Army have been allotted Code numbers from 01 to 50. In this series, 36 is allotted to AEC Records. Hence 236 indicates that, this PPO belongs to an Army Pensioner & his RO is AEC Records.

    Some other Record Offices have been allotted the following codes -

    ASC (S) Records - 40

    ASC (MT) Records - 41

    MEG Records - 22

    and so on...... 

    (b)     4th to 7th digit ( 2015) indicate the Year of Retirement of the Pensioner. 

    (c)     8th to 12th digit, that means the last five digits indicate the Running serial number of PPO. In this case it is 00203

    6.   Further, when the first Corrigendum PPO is generated, 01 is added with the PPO number as suffix. 

    For Example : 236201500203-01

    If second Corrigendum PPO is generated 02 will be added as suffix and so on..... 

    7. Action to be taken by Pensioners after getting message from SPARSH :-

    (a)   Open the SPARSH Website by typing - sparsh.defencepension.gov.in 

    and once the Website is opened, Login to your SPARSH Account by using the valid Username & Password as forwarded to you through email/SMS by SPARSH. 

    (b)  Change the Password & create a Strong Password as per the instructions given therein. 

    (c)  Next important task is PDV (Pensioner Data Verification). Unless & until your PDV is not completed, you can't proceed into your SPARSH Account. 

    (d)  After completion of PDV, check your Pending Personal Data like Aadhaar, PAN, Home address etc. If not updated, complete the same. 

    (e) Once your Aadhaar & PAN is updated in your SPARSH Account, submit your DLC (Digital Life Certificate). 

    It should be borne in mind that, your DLC can only be submitted successfully in SPARSH, if your Aadhaar has already been updated in your SPARSH Account, otherwise not. 

    NOTE:  Being a SPARSH Pensioner of the First Phase Migration, I shared these information out of my experience. If you think, these information may be useful for the newly migrated pensioners, please share this with them.

    Saturday 17 September 2022

    OROP-2 COURT ORDER DISPOSSNG OFF THE CASE & GRANDING 3 MORE MONTHS EXTENSION UP TO 15 DEC2022

    Supreme Court grants Centre time till December to implement OROP

     India News

    Published on Sep 16, 2022 06:59 PM IST

    The request for more time was opposed by the original petitioner in the case, Indian Ex Servicemen Movement, which challenged the OROP scheme before the Supreme Court in 2016

    The Supreme Court gave the Centre three more months, noting that it had made some progress since March 16 when it passed the OROP order. (HT File Photo)
    The Supreme Court gave the Centre three more months, noting that it had made some progress since March 16 when it passed the OROP order. (HT File Photo)
    ByAbraham Thomas

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Centre time till December to implement the one rank one pension (OROP) scheme after being told by the government that re-fixation of pension is a “time consuming” process.

    The Centre moved an application for a three-month extension in June, just before the expiry of the deadline set by the Supreme Court in its March 16 ruling that cleared the OROP scheme.

    A bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli allowed the Centre’s application as it noted that some progress had been made since the passing of the order. The application assured the bench that the government was “taking earnest steps” to comply with the court’s directions which require Cabinet approval.

    It was pointed out that the mandatory inter-ministerial consultations have been completed and a cabinet note drafted. After completing other formalities, the cabinet note will be sent for approval to the Cabinet Secretariat. “After the approval of the Cabinet, various types of pension tables will be required to be prepared by the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), which is also a time-consuming process,” the Centre said in its application.Additional solicitor general (ASG) N Venkataraman told the court that though three months have passed since the filing of this application, the government still required a further time of three months.

    Acceding to the Centre’s request, the bench was willing to extend the time till December 31 but later modified it by saying three months from today. The three-month period will end by December 15.

    The request for more time was opposed by the original petitioner in the case, Indian Ex Servicemen Movement, which challenged the OROP scheme before the Supreme Court in 2016. Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi appearing for the petitioner along with advocate Balaji Srinivasan told the court that the retired armed forces personnel have been deprived of the arrears payable to them under the OROP since its launch on November 7, 2015.

    The scheme envisaged the re-fixation of pension after every five years. This process was to be done in the year 2019 but this wasn’t done since the matter was pending in court.

    In its March judgment, the court said, “We order and direct that in terms of the communication dated November 7, 2015, a re-fixation exercise shall be carried out from July 1, 2019, upon the expiry of five years. Arrears payable to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces shall be computed and paid over accordingly within a period of three months.”

    The challenge to the OROP by the petitioner organization and individual ex-servicemen was on two counts. They wanted an automatic revision of pension instead of a five-year periodic revision and even challenged the arbitrary cut-off of July 1, 2014, for determination of pension which put those who retired prior to this date at a disadvantage.

    The court did not accept the two demands of the petitioners as it felt that the issue fell purely within the policy domain. The government had informed the court that the estimated budget allocation for defence pensions is 1,33,825 crores representing 28.39% of the total defence budget estimate of 4,71,378 crores for 2020-2021. This does not include the budget for salaries, which is 34.89% of the total defence budget estimates for 2020-2021.

    In its verdict, the court underlined that salaries and pensions accounted for 63% of the defence budget estimates for 2020-2021 and the government was entitled to take into account priorities for modernization of the armed forces and modulate the grant of financial benefits.

    Friday 16 September 2022

    REPORTS ON RROCEEDINGS IN HSC ON 16/09/2022 AS RELEASED BY IESM

     Dear Veterans, 

    HSC had ordered on 16 Mar 2022 that arrears on account of equalisation of OROP due since 1 July 2019 be paid to veterans within three months, that is by 15 June 2022. MOD submitted an application with a request that the task to prepare tables of equalisation is time consuming and requested HSC for extension of three months. 

    The MOD request for extension of time was heard today 16 Sep in court no 2 in SC by bench headed by Honourable justice Dr DY Chandrachud. Govt counsel confirmed that most of formalities and calculations have been completed and file is now waiting for cabinet approval. IESM lawyers contested that three month extension period asked by MOD has also expired today, hence there is no case for extension. If at all extension is to be as requested by MOD in that case veterans may be compensated by giving 8% interest on their arrears. 
    Honourable court declined to give interest but directed the Govt to make payment of arrears at the earliest. 
    In view of above veterans can expect the payment of arrears before deepawali. IESM has not seen the tables hence it is not possible to comment on the quantum of arrears. 
    Gp Capt VK Gandhi 
    Vice Chairman IESM 
    16 Sept 2022

    HSC OFFICE REPORT FOR OROP-2 HEARING ON 16/09/2022

    Sunday 14 August 2022

    Wednesday 3 August 2022

    DEFENCE PENSION EXPENDITURE EXCLUDING DEFENCE CIVILIAN PENSION REQUESTED THROUGH RTI FROM CGDA

    DEFENCE PENSION EXPEDITURE IS ALWAS SHOWN ALONG WITH EXPENDITURE OF DEFENCE CIVILIAN PENSIONERS WHY IS IT HIDDEN?

    PENSIONERS OF SAME RANK MAY NOT FORM HOMOGENEOUS CLASS-- HSC

     The implication of the HSC findings in the OROP case is that pensioners of the same rank may not form a homogeneous class, which has created a new definition of OROP in addition to the one formulated by the Executive.

    There appear to be four different definitions of OROP that the executive can use to suit their own sweet will.

    The definition made by the Koshiyari committee

    The definition made by Petitioners

    The definition made by executive order.

    The definition made by HSC

    It is obvious that the definition as ordered by HSC supersedes the other definitions.

    The executive is now not bound to refer to any of its earlier circulars on refixation.

    Still, many people who declare themselves as the masters of the subject misguide others by referring to earlier circulars.

    Please bear in mind that the term "OROP" is not found in any of the Pay Pension regulations of the three forces. It is not related to the defence pension regulation because it is a benefit bestowed outside of it. The courts can not intervene in this exicutive order unless any provisions of the same is challenged as discriminatory/arbitory. 

    The most important implication of the assertion of the court that "pensioners of the same rank may not form a homogenious class" is that the court has confirmed that there is no infirmity in the principle of average of maximum and minimum to be adopted for refixation of OROP.

    The main lacuna of the petition filed by the petitioners of WP(C) 419/2016 was that they did not challenge the original OROP Notification, instead they relied purely on the Koshyari Committee report and other political statements in and outside Parliament, which have no locus standi.

    The petitioners even failed to mention the OROP anomaly commission, termed the OMJC. Another blunter by not taking up the same in Review Petition instead of pointing out Judges’ Pension Scheme. It was a scenario like a son asking his father if he got more and if he got less. They also failed to convince the court that the exicutive themselves have acknoledged the existance of anomalies in the notification,thus constituted a one one man judicial commission(OMJC) headed by a retired Judge. The Notification itself contains many contradictions regarding its objective.

    Now it is better to reconcile with what we are going to get instead of  reading its horoscope &lamenting over a lost soul.

    Wednesday 27 July 2022

    KARGIL VICTORY CELEBRATIONS BY JOVA TAMIL NADU

    Seen in white dress is Veteran MLA of Tamil Nadu Assembly Shri.Manoharan.

    Sunday 26 June 2022