Dont
push ex-servicemen to the brink
By Pritam
Bhullar
NEVER before have the
ex-servicemen looked so restive as they are today. A
common question that all of them, irrespective of their
ranks, ask is: "What is the decision on one rank,
one pension? When they are told that there has been
no decision on this so far, they fume and then shoot
another question: "Are we not Central Government
pensioners?"
The dejection of
ex-servicemen stems from two points: One, from the
notification that the Central Government issued in the
third week of December, 1998, saying that all Central
Government pensioners, irrespective of their date of
retirement would get 50 per cent of the minimum pay
introduced from January 1, 1996, as pension for the post
held by them last. Two, from what the Defence Minister
George Fernandes said in December last that "the
long-pending one-rank, one-pension issue is expected to
be resolved soon". He also said that a Cabinet paper
on the subject was ready and some discussions on the
issue were awaited. "Hope these discussions are
carried out before the present government is
toppled," asked a retired Air Marshal the other day.
The government should
have issued orders for all Central Government pensioners,
including ex-servicemen, simultaneously. As it is, the
soldiers and ex-soldiers are getting more and more
convinced with every passing year that the bureaucrats
spare no efforts to do them down. It is time the
politicians and bureaucrats realised that the continuing
dissatisfaction of the serving and retired soldiers will
not augur well for the country. The wisdom lies in not
pushing them to the brink.
Disabled
soldiers
Havaldar Bant Singh of
Engineers, who belongs to Dhangrali village in Ropar
district, lost his lower leg while clearing the enemy
mines after the 1971 war in the Sialkot sector. He was
boarded out from the Army in 1975. "I have no land
and in these hard days, I cannot sustain my wife and a
four-year old son with my disability pension of Rs 3200
per month," says Hav Bant Singh. To make both ends
meet, he runs a "rehri" on the Morinda-Kurali
road.
Naik Gurmail Singh of 9
Para Commando, who is from Dhoomcherri village in Ropar
district, lost his left arm in Operation Pawan in Sri
Lanka. He was boarded out from the Army in 1989 when he
had less than eight years service. He gets a measly
disability pension. To sustain his family of three
school-going children, besides wife and old parents, he
is working as a temporary hand in a private factory near
Kurali. These are only two of the hundreds of disabled
soldiers who have been forgotten after they were thrown
out of the Army.
It is a pity that while
dishing out any benefits, the government tends to forget
the widows and disabled soldiers. Is it because of their
helplessness?
Ironically, while all
other recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission were
implemented about a year ago, the government decision on
the disability pension remains pending. This is putting
the hapless disabled soldiers to a great financial
hardship. Not only that, most of them living in the
villages do not get any medical attention because of
their inability to travel to the nearest military
hospitals.
ACR
system
It has become a normal
practice for the defence personnel to go to civil courts
for seeking justice. Most of the cases pending in the
high courts and the apex court are of those officers who
have been denied promotions. Ironically, several of them
get justice from these courts.
The Annual Confidential
Report (ACR) system has undergone quite a few changes in
the past 20 years. With every revision, the system has
developed more loopholes. The reason is that the
reporting officers hide more than they reveal when they
want to harm an officer.
Even in cases when the
aggrieved officers submit non-statutory and statutory
complaints to the Army Chief and the Central Government,
respectively, these complaints are delayed for more than
a year before they are rejected in almost all cases. Why
are they rejected? Because these complaints are channeled
through the same officers who had endorsed the ACRs and
they do not change their earlier stand.
As for the delay, a
Complaint Advisory Board (CAB) was established at the
Army Headquarters to streamline the system a few years
ago. But it has hardly helped in cutting out of the
delay.
See the number of
Lieut-Gens and Maj-Gens who have gone to civil courts in
the last two years to seek justice. This trend is
encouraging junior officers to follow their leaders.
The only way to improve
the ACR system is to make it so transparent that no
portion of an ACR, is kept hidden from the officer
concerned.
Professional
studies
It is heartening that an
Army institute of law is being established at Mohali. The
institute will start functioning from its interim
location at Patiala this year and will shift to Mohali
when its permanent building comes up there. The institute
having 60 seats, is starting a five-year BA,LLB. course
for the children of serving and retired Army personnel
and war widows who have passed 10+2 or equivalent
examination. Five per cent seats have also been earmarked
for the wards of civilians.
Happily, there is no
restriction on the candidates to join the Army after they
get the LLB. degree. This will attract a larger spectrum
of candidates to this course.
One of the several
factors that have contributed to make the Army an
unattractive profession over the years is that the
children of defence personnel, who keep changing schools
after every two years, suffer from a disadvantage when it
comes to competing with the children of civilians for
admission to the professional courses. That the Army top
brass is trying to offset this disadvantage by opening a
few more institutions for professional studies is a step
in the right direction.
The Army is also setting
up professional institutions such as Institute of Hotel
Management at Bangalore, Institute of Engineering at
Pune, Institute of Management at Jabalpore and Calcutta.
The Armed Forces Medical College is already functioning
at Pune for the past several decades. Besides, a dental
college has also been established at Secunderabad. The
Army personnel should make full use of these institutes
to improve the career prospects of their wards.
This
feature was published on April 18, 1999
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