IESM: Pension Anomalies- March for Justice

Date: Friday, 14 August, 2009, 4:04 PM
SERIOUS ANOMALIES IN PENSIONS AND DEPOSITING OF MEDAL
Dear Friends
1. The next date for return of medals to the President is 09 Sep 2009 at 3.00 PM. This is being done due to the total apathetic attitude shown by the Govt towards our most genuine demand of One Rank One Pension. A few facts are brought to your notice.
PBOR
There is a large gap which still exists between pre 01.01.06 retirees and post 01.01.06 retirees. Pre 01-01-06 Sepoy will get Rs 5461 where as the post 01-01-06 will get Rs 7045 with 50 percent weightage. This gap which will further increase once 70% weightage is implemented. OROP to the PBORs thus has not been granted as against what is being claimed by the Government.
Officers
A Major General pre 2006 retiree will get far less pension than his four ranks junior ie Lt Col who retired after 01-01-06. Likewise other senior rank officers ie Brig, Col, Lt Col, Maj, Capt, Lt, JCO's who are pre 2006 retirees will get less pension than their counterparts who retired after 01-01-06. This is a weird situation which is also a blatant violation of article 14 of the constitution. A senior rank officer must never get less pension than his junior rank officer irrespective of the date of retirement. The very functioning of the Army Rank structure is being adversely affected. The table below illustrates the point.

Pre 2006/ Post 2006 (01.01.06)
Major 14100/ 22135
Lt Col 25700/ 28695
Col 26050/ 30375
Brig 26150/ 31170
Maj Gen 26700/ 33925
Lt Gen 36500/ 39500
Likewise pre 2006 retiree Col will draw 26050 where as post 01-01-06 will get 30375. A large a gap of Rs 11600 exists between pensions of Major and Lt Col. Similarly large gap has been created between the pensions of Major General and Lt Gen i.e Rs 9800/-. The pension variation/ differential of Lt Col, Col, Brig and Major General have been kept in a narrow a range ie Rs 25700– Rs 26700/- gap of only Rs 1000. Between Col and Maj Gen the difference in pension is only Rs 650/-. The anomaly is too glaring. There should be adequate diffential between the pensions of successive rank and there should be no large variations within a particular rank.

While implementing the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Maj Gens, the Govt has accepted the concept of granting the same pension to pre 96 and post 96 retirees the plea made by Maj Gens when 5th Pay Commission was implemented. In the same way the Govt should have applied the same concept in the case of pre 01 Jan 2006 and Post 01 Jan 2006 retirees. Three Assured Carrier Progressions (ACP) concept has been accepted as 6th CPC award. But the same has not been applied to the past pensioners. The past pensioners should also be given the benefit of ACP by notionally applying the concept to them and their pensions fixed accordingly.

2. Friends, we need to prepare ourselves to be a one united whole of ESM to resolve all our issues to get due justice with an aim of establishing healthy environment of functioning of Defence Forces in a democracy. As you are aware the IESM has already been registered as a federation of all ESM organizations. Organization membership system has been put in place besides the individual membership. The IESM has had one year’s experience of its functioning. Besides pressing for our major demands, we have also started ECHS and Pension Cells to improve the satisfaction levels of ESM. This is the right time that all ESM organizations in the country should join the IESM as part of the Federation to make it an umbrella organization of the ESM of India. State convenors are requested to launch a concerted drive in this regard.
3. Medals deposit being our next event, all out efforts be made to collect maximum medals and send these through couriers or by hand to IESM HQ Office at 543 Sector 23 Gurgaon (Haryana) 122017. Representatives attending the meeting on 30 Aug 2009 at Noida may kindly bring the collected medals from their respective area with them. The state convenors are also requested to nominate their districts, city, tehsil and block committees of IESM if not already done and forward their details to the HQ IESM at the above address at the earliest.

With Kind Regards,
Jai Hind
Yours Sincerely,
Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Vice Chairman Indian ESM Movement