Dear Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar ji, Hon’ble MP

Sir,

Thank you very much for taking up legal cases of disabled soldiers with hon’ble Raksha Mantri. The low level bureaucrats i.e. desk officers and under secretaries in the Min of Def are playing havoc with retired defence services personnel.
I am sure the hon’ble Raksha Mantri will take note of your letter and ensure implementation of judgment of AFTs in respect of disabled soldiers.
Sir, I urge you to take up the case of non – implementation of One Man Judicial committee report of Justice L Narasimha Reddy on OROP. Many anomalies have surfaced in the implementation of OROP after issue of Circular 555 of PCDA (Pensions) Allahabad. I bring to your kind notice just four issues. Many pensioners will get benefit if the report of the Justice is implemented.

Special Family Pensioners and Liberalised Family Pensioners:
They are the worst affected lot. Due to linking of pension to the length of service of their husbands most of the liberalised family pensioners will not get any benefit due to OROP. Earlier it was the policy of the Govt of India that the pension of Special and Liberalised Family pensioners will be fixed at the maximum service of 33 years for the rank of husband. Even if an Officer of the rank of Lt or Capt died with service of just two or three years, Govt of India was magnanimous to consider his service as 33 years and widow used to get pension for the length of service of 33 years.
Same is the case of Sepoys, Naiks and Havildars who get martyred in large numbers in various operations.
When pension is related to length of service of martyred personnel their wives will get no benefit in OROP as their present pension is much higher than in OROP. Therefore the fixation of pension even in OROP for Special and Liberalise family pensioners should be delinked to length of actual service and be treated as 33 years for Officers and 15 years for Sepoys and longer service for Naiks and Havildars and JCOs.

Hony Lts and Hony Capts:
The pension of regular Lts and Capts is same as that of selected JCOs promoted as Hony Lts and Hony Capts based on merit. For all purposes Hony Officers are only JCOs and work under Lts and Capts. But fixing pension of Lts and Capts same as that of Hony Officers is downright incorrect and it amounts equating Class A officers with Class B officers. The pension of Lts and Capts has to be worked out based on notional pay if there is no officer of this rank who retired in calendar year 2013.

Pension of Post- OROP Hony Officers:
    The Hony Lts and Hony Capts who retired post OROP i.e. Jan 2014 get lesser pension than Hony Officers of pre – OROP i.e. Pre – 2013. Generally the pension of current pensioners is higher than past pensioners. This has happened because apparently, the Defence Accounts Dept has not taken Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) of all retired in calendar year 2013 from ranks of Sepoy to Lt Gen of all three services and seen who has got highest pension and who got lowest pension for that rank, length of service and Group X or Y (for JCOs /OR) and then fixed pension based on Average of Maximum and Minimum for all pre – 2013 retirees.

Pension of JCOs and OR in OROP:
Every year about 55,000 to 60,000 all ranks retire from Armed forces. Out of which 95% are JCOs /OR. The Circular 555 has fixed pension of Havildar of Group Y from 20 years to 28 years at Rs 7,795 pm. This is just not possible. If the method of fixation of pension is by averaging maximum and minimum of pension of those Havildars of Army / Petty officers of Navy / Sergeants of IAF for all lengths of service from 15 years to 28 years, you will find every year many of these ranks retire from 15 years of service to 26 years of service. Longer the service, more are the increment and therefore higher is the Last Drawn Emoluments and therefore higher is the pension. Pension has to be higher for Hav /PO/Sgt with 26 years of service in 2013 compared to Hav / PO/ Sgt with 20 years of service. But Circular 555 fixes it at Rs 7,795 for all. This leads us to one simple conclusion that DAD personnel did not check the PPOs of all Havs / POs / Sgts who retired in 2013 with service ranging from 20 years to 28 years.

There are plethora of anomalies in Circular 555. Therefore all these have been projected by Ex Servicemen and Family Pensioners at 19 stations to the hon’ble justice when he took pains to visit these stations all over India. Based on his interaction with thousands of pensioners, Justice L Narasimha Reddy submitted his report on 26 Oct 2016. Though eight months have passed nothing has come out.

I therefore request you to take up a case with hon’ble RM to implement recommendation of Justice L Narasimha Reddy. When thousands of crores of farm loans are waived off, few hundred crores to cater to anomalies in OROP is not a great burden.

Sir, though NDA – II Government did not give OROP but only equalised pensions once in five years instead of present system of 10 years on the specious ground it is administrative night mare for DAD personnel to equlaise pension every year in this computer age. But the same Govt of India does NOT find fixing fuel prices of petrol and diesel every day all over India an administrative night mare. Therefore, it is in the interest of NDA – II Govt to assuage the hurt feelings of faujis by immediately implementing report of Justice L Narasimha Reddy on OROP over coming all bureaucratic hurdles like they did for One Time Increase (being touted as OROP).

Thank you for sparing time to read this long mail.

Regards,

Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd)
President, Tri Service Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association (TSEWA)
040 – 48540895
9493191380