SCPC: Payment of Pensions

Dear James,
Officers are being paid pensions thru banks, who are working out the entitlements of arrears etc based on directives from the MOD. A number of banks are invloved taking in to account that veteran officers are living all over India. Different banks are likely to interpret and authorise varied pension entitlements for offcers of same rank or authorise incorrect amounts. WHO IN THE GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSED TO CHECK AND ENSURE THAT ALL VETERAN OFFICERS GET CORRECT AMOUNT OF PENSION!!

As far as I know, after a Pay Commission, the CDA should issue PPO to each officer and the bank concerned. Officers will then know their entiltements and check that they are getting the dues correctly.

Some veterans living in Delhi may kindly check with the Army HQ the procedure being adopted. The same can be communicated thru this Blog.

Best wishes.
Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh


Dear General Harbhajan,
Thanks. I checked with IOB (my bankers) and really what they have is copy of the 95 paged Pension Table. In fact I helped the Pension clerk to interpret and cross check the the amounts from the table. The bank has the original PPO copy which indicates the Pension, Commutation and number of years of service. The current PPO's as you have indicated would be the correct one. This is required to be updated periodically by CDA Pensions and issued to bankers. What I believe now, is that Pensions are outsourced to the bankers for implementation. Each bank has a software that works out all the arrears as on Sep 2008 once the basic pay as on 01 Jan 2006 and number of years service is fed as input. I am yet to get the print out of my arrears as a bank statement. I need to get the latest PPO from CDA.

I think the MOD needs to do a lot more to set right the chaos created by the banks. I am amazed by the callous way the Pensions of ESM are treated. We need to get to know who is really responsible for this state, the CDA, MOD or the Bankers. To me it appears like it is chugging the typical bureaucracy roller coaster. However the flip side is that the arrears have been credited and Pension enhanced by approx 35% in my case. Certainly we will post all details regarding Pension in the blog as and when we get inputs.

Regards and best wishes,
Lt Col James Kanagaraj

Ex Servicemen are invited to send in their observations/ suggestions for effective mechanism to ensure that Pension Arrears and Fixation of Pension and ultimate credit in their accounts. The issues related to PBOR is more complex especially for pre- 1996 retirees. In the absence of date of birth, grade or rank equivalent (some grades merged) the correct fixation is held up in many cases. However banks are cooperative in that arrears and fixation of Pension is effected temporarily. We like to hear more from you.......