Guidelines issued
by the Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare for payment of Dearness
Relief to re-employed pensioners have been extended by this Ministry to the
ex-servicemen re-employed in civil posts. These guidelines are as under:-
• The pay of
re-employed pensioners who held posts of the ranks of Commissioned Officers at
the time of their retirement is fixed at the same stage as last drawn before
their retirement. These pensioners are not entitled to any Dearness Relief on
pension on their re-employment in civil posts.
• The pay of
re-employed pensioners who held posts below the ranks of Commissioned Officers
(PBOR) at the time of their retirement is fixed at the minimum of the pay scale
of the post in which they are re-employed. Such pensioners are entitled to
Dearness Relief on pension on their re-employment in civil posts.
• If the pay of
re-employed pensioners who held posts, below the ranks of Commissioned Officer
(PBOR) at the time of their retirement before attaining the age of 55 years, is
fixed at a higher stage because of advance increments and no protection of the
last pay drawn is being given, the pay is treated as fixed at a minimum of the
pay scale for the purposes of ignoring the entire pension and allowing Dearness
Relief on pension.
It is expected that
the aforesaid guidelines are being implemented by all banks uniformly without
prejudice to the ex-servicemen category. This information was given by Defence
Minister Shri Arun Jaitley in a written reply to ShriMahendra Singh Mahrain
Rajya Sabha today.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the
‘one rank, one pension’ policy would be implemented in the defence forces
before the next Budget.
“One rank, one pension policy will be implemented.
We are right now working on its detailing,” Parrikar said. The implementation
has lot of financial implications which are being worked out, he said.
“It has a lot of financial implications. Details
would be available only once we work it out,” Parrikar said.
‘One rank, one pension’ policy means soldiers of
the same rank and same length of service get the same pension irrespective of
their retirement date. Parrikar said the announcement to implement the policy
was made in the last Budget.
“Now we will have to implement it. I have kept a
target that it will be implemented before the next Budget. My effort is to
ensure that it should be implemented as soon as possible. My target is that it
should not wait for the next Budget,” he said.
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha recently, the
Congress had accused the government of delaying the implementation of the
scheme. The OROP had been announced in the Interim Budget in February, but was
yet to be implemented, Congress MP from Rohtak, Deepender Hooda, said in
Parliament.
Deepender Hooda accused the bureaucracy of trying
to dilute the original meaning of OROP as defined by the Koshiyari Committee,
which was the petition committee of the Rajya Sabha. Hooda had asked the
government to come out and announce the implementation of OROP. — PTI
The entire
military veterans’ community which includes the war disabled and the widows are
dismayed and feel betrayed at the inordinate delay in implementing the One Rank
One Pension (OROP) by the government.
The Koshyari
committee, a multi-party parliamentary committee recommended OROP in its report
presented to the Parliament on December 19, 2011. After procrastinating over
the report for more than 3 years, the erstwhile UPA government announced the
grant of OROP on the floor of the Parliament as a part of the interim Budget presented on Feb 17, 2014.
Immediately
thereafter, the then defence minister convened a meeting to discuss the
modalities for the implementation of OROP. The meeting was attended among
others by the minister of state for defenceJitendra Singh, the defence
secretary RK Mathur, secretary ex-servicemen’s welfare SangitaGairola,
secretary defence finance ArunavaDutt, the three service vice chiefs and
the adjutant generals or equivalents from the services headquarters.
A Press Information Bureau (Defence Wing) release issued after the meeting stated that the defence
minister “assured the services that the government was fully committed to
implement the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) policy and that required funds will
be made available to ensure its implementation”. It further went on to define
OROP thus:
“OROP 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 to be automatically passed
on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of
pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future
enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past
pensioners”.
This
definition is in conformity with the Supreme Court’s judgment in the famous
Major General SVS Veins Vs Union of India case.
The defence minister
had also during the meeting directed the Controller General of Defence Accounts
(CGDA) to initiate immediate steps in consultation with the three services,
ministry of defence finance and department of ESW to give effect to the
decision. He had also emphasized that family pensioners and disability
pensioners would be included.
The BJP
government reaffirmed their commitment to OROP in their Budget
2014 – 15 presented at
the Parliament on 10 July 2014 (paragraph 140). Prime Minister Modi too had
promised OROP in his very first election rally besides echoing his resolve on
the issue subsequently during his visits to various defence establishments.
Despite nine
months having gone by, the bureaucracy is still sitting in audit of the
Parliamentary Committee’s recommendations and the Prime Minister’s
announcements and perhaps attempting to redefine OROP. If nine months are not
good enough for an organisation to work out the details with a clear definition
of what they ought to be doing, those in authority in the organisation have no
business to continue in service.
It now appears that the CGDA has come out with a
projection of 9000 crores as the additional burden on the exchequer to
implement the OROP whereas the service headquarters have estimated a
requirement of 5000 crores. The CGDA has not provided the details of their
calculations to the Service Headquarters. The projection by the CGDA, the
veterans’ community therefore believes is flawed and meant to mislead the
defence minister. If the calculations are genuine, why keep it a secret ask the
veterans. Even if the expenditure is as projected by the CGDA, is it too much
of a price for the nation to pay to those who risk their life at the cost of
their family’s welfare and their children’s future development at their old
age?
Veterans also point to the alacrity with which the
bureaucracy implemented the non-functional upgradation (NFU) to officers of
organised group ‘A’ services. The report of the Sixth Central Pay Commission
was submitted to finance minister P Chidambaram by Justice BN Srikrishna on
March 24, 2008. The cabinet approved sixth pay commission recommendations with
some modifications on August 14, 2008 and the NFU proposal was implemented on
April 24, 2009 vide ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions department
of personnel and training 0M
No.AB.14017/64/2008-Estt.(RR) dated 24.4.2009 barely 13 months after the report was submitted to the government by
the commission.
It is an irony that while 100 % officers of the
Organised Group ‘A’ Services are covered under the NFU and thus eligible to
draw the salary of a Joint Secretary at a service of 19 years, only 0.8 % of
the Defence Services Officers would be eligible for a similar treatment after
28 years of service. The system has been so engineered that it places 100%
officers of the Organised Group ‘A’ services under the ambit of OROP. Where is
the parity between the Civil and Military now, a plea under which the military
was brought within the civil services pay and pension system? How can two
streams of services with diverse service conditions and terms of retirement
have the same pay and pension structure? Where has justice and fair play gone?
The Veterans point out that before the Government
had made the announcement regarding implementation of OROP on 17 February 2014
in the Parliament, the financial effects of implementing the scheme would have
been worked out and a green signal given to the proposal by the very same
bureaucracy which is now sitting in judgment of the Government’s announcement
in the Parliament and blocking its implementation. Is the Government being run
by the political leadership or the bureaucracy?
Veterans allege that the bureaucracy acts as a
stumbling block in every issue that has a positive impact on the soldiers even
going to the extent of challenging court verdicts providing minimal financial
benefits to Veterans, war disabled and widows in the Supreme Court. The
government is prepared to spend money, time, and effort fighting cases even
where the financial implications are insignificant but supporting the
soldiering community is a total No No. The aim is to frustrate the community
and make them run around lawyers and courts at their advanced age spending
their valuable time and money fighting a legal battle with the mighty state.
It is time the Prime Minister sees the plot. Delay
is an instrument which is exploited by the bureaucracy to deny people their
right besides forcing people to pay a bribe to get their file moving. In this
case it is a fundamental ethos of the bureaucracy to keep the soldiers begging
for everything that they rightly deserve.
The Veterans are an aging community. Inordinate
delay in implementing a long standing issue which could provide them with some
relief at their old age only gives a feeling that those in the Government who
have a moral responsibility to look after the soldiering community at their old
age are merely waiting in anticipation for the aged to wither away as time
passes. A large number passed away without seeing the Rank Pay arrears. Let
that not happen in the case of OROP.
