IESM: Letters to Supreme Commander and Defence Minister

Letter to Supreme Commander for pleading for Pension Parity
Lt Gen Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Chairman
8 June 2010
Kindly refer to our letters No IESM/Medals/2010 dated 16th March, 2010 and 13153/RK/2010 dated 12th April, 2010 on the subject of depositing medals with the Supreme Commander of Armed Forces.

It is submitted that we still have not received a reply to our request to the Hon’ble Supreme Commander to receive medals of the ex-servicemen in person. The depositing of medals is symbolic of the disenchantment of the entire ex-servicemen population at the rejection at their long standing demand of `One Rank One Pension’ (OROP).

It is once again requested that the Supreme Commander find time to make it convenient to receive in person the delegation deputed to hand over the 5,000 medals that were brought back earlier from the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Do allow me to mention that if your availability or any other response is still not intimated to us within a reasonable time, in deference to the wishes of the ex-servicemen community, our delegation carrying the medals will have no choice but to visit the Rashtrapati Bhawan on a pre-announced date. In case, your Excellency does not meet the delegation and does not receive the medals personally, the delegation will come back without handing over the medals. This will be repeated every month till we get OROP.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Raj Kadyan)

Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil
Hon’ble President of India &
Supreme Commander of Armed Forces

Letter to Raksha Mantri pleading for enhanced pension to service widows
Lt Gen Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Chairman
09 June 2010
I write to approach you in connection with non grant of enhanced pensionary benefits to the Service widows. As you are aware, enhanced pensionary benefits were announced by the government vide there letter dated 08 March 2010. This announcement covered personnel other than officers. Even though this is not ‘one rank one pension’, for which our efforts will continue, the increase in pension was a positive and welcome step. However, for some inexplicable reason the Service widows have been kept out of the ambit of this provision. This omission has come as a great surprise and shock. Ironically, we are not even in a position to explain the rationale for this discrimination during our interaction with the Service families.
On receipt of the government orders announcing the enhancement, I had written a letter to the Secretary Ex Serviceman Department pointing out the above anomaly. However, there has been no reply. This being an important issue affecting a large section of the pensioners’ population, I request your kind intervention in enlarging the ambit of the government orders to cover all categories of Defence pensioners.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Raj Kadyan)

Mr AK Antony
Hon’ble Minister of Defence

We congratulate and applaud IESM for the dedicated governing body headed by Veteran Raj Kadyan for grappling, addressing and taking up the welfare related issues of Ex Servicemen with the concerned authorities on regular basis.