New Delhi, June 25, 2011: For 63-year-old Sepoy Trilok Singh it has been a battle
he had not foreseen when he retired from the Indian Army in 1983 at the age of
32 and putting in a service of 15 years.
The government, in the face of ex-servicemen movement, had agreed to enhance
his pension along with 14 lakh other jawans retiring before 2006. But he is yet
to receive the enhanced pension which would help him in keeping up with
sky-rocketing prices.
“We have been running from pillar to post here. But I am yet to receive my
pension. Many of my retired colleagues are also facing the same problem,” Sepoy
Trilok Singh said, who has been drawing a pension of Rs. 6,446 and a hike would
mean an addition of about Rs.1,500.
Two years back the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had decided to enhance the
pensions of nearly 14 lakh armed forces jawans retiring before 2006. The money to
the tune of over Rs. 2,200 crores was thereafter allocated. But the money is
still lying unspent as the defence ministry and the banks say they do not have
means for the massive calculation required for the distribution of the money
among the soldiers.
The government had decided to give the soldiers an increase in the pension
to mollify the protesting veterans who have been returning their gallantry
medals in pursuance of their demand for One Rank One Pension (OROP) two years
back. In the budget proposals of the 2009-10 in Lok Sabha the money was
allocated.
“The allocated money has to be given to the banks which are the disbursing
authorities for the pension of the ex-servicemen. But this requires calculation
of the amount to be distributed to each retired soldier on the basis of his
rank, years put into service and the year of retirement and it is a mammoth
exercise,” Maj (retired) HS Choudhary said.
Till now the defence ministry and the banks are passing the responsibility
onto each other to “outsource” the calculation part.
Government sources said: “The defence ministry has revealed that so far only
three lakh soldiers, who managed to get the calculation done have been able to
get their enhanced pension. But the rest 11 lakh are awaiting the benefits,”
the source added.
The experts of the military law points out that every time the government
comes up with pension benefits for veterans, instead of directing automatic
revision by the Pension Sanctioning Authorities (the defence ministry) and the
Pension Disbursing Authorities (PDAs) , the retired soldiers have to apply to
the concerned authorities for the revision of pension on complicated prescribed
formats.
“The problem is that lakhs of ex-servicemen especially the jawans, who come
from a rural background, don’t even get a whiff of these upward revisions. This
is in sharp contrast to the Department of Pensions on the civil side which
proactively ensures that the information of beneficial provisions reaches all
concerned,” a senior Indian Army official said, requesting anonymity as he was
not authorized to speak to the media.
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