ESM: Pension Tables a critical evaluation

Comparison of PensionsI am attaching the pension table shown above. It has been prepared by some one who knows all the nuances of the subject and is based on the assumption that the recommendations of the Pay Commission are ipso facto applied to the military pensioners. The figures for the period 1996- 2005 are approximate, since they vary with each passing year and the post 2006 amounts are the pensions admissible for those who retire in early 2006. For the subsequent retirees, these will increase due to the 3% increments (the first one due in July 2006) and promotions.

Please note:

At the two apex levels, viz, the Cabinet Secretary/ Service Chiefs and the Secretary/ Army Commanders it is "OROP", per se.

For HAG Plus, which has no equivalent in the military so far, it is almost OROP. It is more than a coincidence that an overwhelming majority of the best paid government employees who have been granted this liberal dispensation are civil servants. A fairly large proportion of the IAS and the IPS officers rise to the HAG plus and higher levels while the number of Army Commanders (and equivalents) can be counted on finger tips.

Very few of our veteran analysts have studied the effect of the recommendations of this pay commission on the pension of PBOR. It would be noticed that for the Sepoys and the NCOs the difference is fairly large. It is my belief that if the government is so unwise as to extend the civilian pay rule to the pre- 2006 military pensioners then our Jawans stand to loose on every count. It is cold logic that a soldier retiring in Dec 2005 should not be given two thirds the pension of his comrade-in-arms who hangs up his uniform just a month later.

Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)

We thank Maj Gen Surjit Singh for the critical evaluation of Pension anomalies for the ESM. The grant of OROP is the only logical solution to remedy the lopsided and confusing Pension Tables in vogue. The PBORs and widows are the ones who are victims of the injustice so created by Bureaucrats which ultimately do not benefit the most deserving Jawans in their twilight years.