Short service officers short circuited by MoD and DGAFMS

Key file missing, MoD blames DGAFMS
Vijay Mohan Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 30
Even as former short service commissioned (SSC) officers continue to be hassled over availing treatment at military hospitals, the Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) has claimed that the Defence Ministry’s file containing relevant orders issued by the President has been “lost”.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD), in response to a query under the RTI Act, has held the DGAFMS responsible for the loss, as it was the custodian of the file.

Earlier, the DGAFMS had responded to queries by ex-servicemen by claiming that the file was with the MoD. When the Ministry wrote to the DGAFMS pointing out that the file was with it, medical directorate then claimed that it was lost.

In 1996, the government had extended outdoor medical facilities in military hospitals to all “ex-servicemen”. These were earlier available only to “ex-service pensioners” and the relevant clause introduced in 1983 was amended after the presidential sanction was accorded for the same.

Letters on the subject were later issued by the Adjutant General’s branch, explicitly including emergency commissioned and SSC officers under the ambit of military medical facilities. Requests by the Director General Medical Services (Army) to rescind these medical facilities were also turned down by the MoD in 1997 and 1998.

Last year, the DGAFMS suo-moto started refusing medical care to elderly veterans on the pretext that they were not entitled to the facility. The DGAFMS also claimed that its concurrence was not taken before granting facilities to non-pensioner ex-servicemen. The DGMS (Army) even wrote to all Army Commands asking them not to comply with letters of the MOD and the Army Headquarters.

Irked by the conduct of the DGAFMS, many ex-servicemen sought a copy of the file notings leading to the Presidential sanction in which the complete concurrence of the then DGAFMS was taken. The DGAFMS, thereafter, took the pretext that the said file was lost.
Medical Benefits for SSC Officers