New Delhi: The government yesterday approved a `23bn per year (about $430m) proposal to fix the anomalies in the pay and pension of 1.3-million strong defence personnel, 2 million ex-servicemen and another 400,000 military widows, in a bid to assuage their hurt over the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations implemented in 2008.
“The union cabinet has approved the recommendations of the committee headed by cabinet secretary (Ajit Seth) for benefits to ex-servicemen on four issues. The financial implications of the improvements made as per the cabinet decision on the four items are broadly estimated at `23bn per annum,” a government official said here soon after the cabinet meeting.
“These are expected to largely meet the demands of the defence pensioners on ‘one rank - one pension’ (OROP),” the official said.
The approved proposals would be implemented “from a prospective date and payment made accordingly,” the official added.
The committee, set up on July 13 this year on orders of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, submitted its report on August 8 this year.
The government had tasked the committee to look into issues of defence personnel such as common pay-scale for in-service junior commissioned officers and other ranks and initial pay-fixation of lieutenant colonels, colonels, and brigadiers of the army and their equivalents in the other two armed forces among others.
Its remit also included ex-servicemen’s issues such as OROP (that all retired officers of the same rank and service tenure should get the same pension), enhancement of family pension, dual family pension, and family pension for mentally and physically challenged children of armed forces personnel on marriage.
On OROP, the demand of the defence forces and ex-servicemen associations is that uniform pension be paid to the 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 the pre-hike pensioners.
The difference in the pension in the same rank occurs on account of the number of increments earned by the defence personnel in that rank.
There is also a difference between the pensioners who retired before and after January 1, 2006 when the sixth pay commission recommendations were made applicable retrospectively belonging to a particular rank.
The UPA government, since 2004, has on two previous occasions taken decisions to narrow the gap in pensions of personnel who retired at different points of time, particularly those belonging to the ranks of junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and soldiers (other ranks or ORs).
IANS
