What lures Generals to Panchkula?:

Panchkula: 'City of Generals'
PANCHKULA: Panchkula, the satellite town of Chandigarh, seems to be fast becoming the " City of Generals" as one more war veteran has made it his post-retirement home. Army commander of Western Command Lt Gen S R Ghosh, who hung up his uniform, has decided to settle down in Panchkula, which is already home to hundreds of Army officers including Gen V K Singh, who also retired recently, and former army chief V P Malik.
Lt Gen Ghosh said he loved the area during his stint as Army commander and decided to settle here because of the atmosphere and way of life the city offers for the defence personnel. Another reason for settling down here, he added, was that his wife, a retired bureaucrat, was born and brought up here. Ghosh, nevertheless, maintained that the city lacks maintenance and that considering the number of senior officers settling here, local bodies should focus on its proper upkeep.
Panchkula already has hundreds of officers and war veterans, who remained commanders of various vital formations of Army during conventional as well as non-conventional wars, settled here. Among them are former Army chief Gen (retd) Malik, former Army vice-chief Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, former commanders -- Lt Gen H S Panag, Lt Gen P S Hoon, Lt Gen Deepinder Singh, LT Gen T K Sapru, Lt Gen G S Sihota, Lt Gen R S Dayal (died recently), Lt Gen Daljit Singh and Lt Gen Surinder Singh among others.
Sector 12, 12-A, 6, 20 and MDC have a high concentration of top Army officers. In fact, Panchkula has become a station of choice post-retirement not only for those from the region but also those belonging to other parts of the country.
According to senior Army officers, the city is one of the best urban planned cities of the country, has spacious roads, large lung spaces and planned markets. Besides, it is strategically located -- within an earshot of Shimla to the north and New Delhi to the south. With Chandimandir Cantonment in the vicinity, officers' link to service life and a large community of retired and serving officers make it particularly attractive.
Panchkula: 'City of Generals' gets 2 more after 'farewell to arms' by Ajay Sura, TNN Jun 1, 2012, 05.01AM IST

Career Transition Workshop

Dear Kamboj sir,
Need your help to post the appended details on "Report My Signals" as also pass the link http://cts.doattend.com to anyone who could be interested in knowing more about post retirement options. This is an initiative to help our serving bretheren in the fauj, who are contemplatring either PMR or retiring after having completed their full service.
Best Rgds
Mahesh

Hi Everybody,
The Indian Purple Foundation (TIPF) is a group of military officers who took premature retirement a few years ago and have made a successful transition into civilian life. The Foundation aims to provide a platform for serving and retired military officers to share experiences and exchange views on various aspects of a switch from uniform to civilian life.
The TIPF has organised a "Career Transition Seminar" on 13th Jun 2010 at USI Delhi. The seminar is aimed at an audience of those who are close to retirement, have opted for, or are considering, a premature retirement, and for others who may be plain curious to know more about the eventuality of such a transition. The seminar will have an impressive group of speakers, who have volunteered to share their experiences and ideas with those who wish to hear about the many options and nuances of such a career shift.
This will be a not-for-profit, paid seminar @ Rs 500 per head, which will basically cover the expenses related to organising the seminar. Your support is required to spread the word around to defence officers, both serving and retired, who you think may find value in the seminar.
The seminar is being managed through the online event management service DoAttend.com. Please visit the seminar website at click here, where you will find more information about the event as well as links to register for the event and make online/ offline payment of registration fees. Please also visit the TIPF blog at click here, where you will get the latest updates about the seminar and can also post your comments and suggestions.
The TIPF Team (Gopal Karunakaran, Pradeep Bhat, R Mahesh)

The Soldiers' 2nd Innings

Dear friends,
A review of the captioned book "The Soldiers’ 2nd Innings": click here
The reviewer has made a very valid point: the book does not contain any thing for our personnel below officer ranks. This lacuna has also been pointed out by some of my friends.

The book is,indeed, officer oriented. The reason for this is not far to seek. I have no first hand knowledge or experience of the problems which our men experience, and so I thought it better to leave that task to some one more qualified to do so. It is my belief that a RCO or a SL Commissioned officer should be motivated to produce such a book. It has been rightly pointed out by several persons that the soldier these days is quite different from the man who served in the army when we were in the units. He is well educated and has access to creature comforts like a fridge, TV set, washing machine and a motor cycle. Officers of my vintage did not have any of these luxuries at the start of our careers fifty years ago. An NCO retiring after about 20 or24 years service gets well over ten lacs of rupees as his terminal benefits and many of them do not know how to handle that kind of money. They need guidance.

If our soldiers can be given the necessary inputs and guidance, they can convert their military experience into civilian success. And when that happens, we will have lacs of ESM contributing to the economy of the nation. Improvements in pension and rationalization of terminal benefits are inecessary, and we must press for that twenty five year old demand. But what is even more necessary is the need to prepare our soldier for a second job or alternative vocation.

Lt Gen Chandele has summed it up very well in his Prelude to the book, He says, "Retired life can be enjoyed fully, if you have two essentials: "Enough to live on and enough to live for"
Now here is an offer
In case some one come forward to write a book for the JCOs and the NCOs I shall provide all the assistance which he may need to publish the work, including financial suuport.
Regards,
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)

Comments and suggestions from Brig Sukhwindar Singh click here

The Soldiers’ 2nd Innings by Maj Gen Surjit Singh (retd) & Lt Col Kanwal Dev Singh (retd) MacMillan. Reviewed by Randeep Wadehra

A majority of the soldiers in our Armed Forces, especially in the Indian Army, retire young. This is as true of the commissioned officers as it is of the personnel belonging to the Other Ranks (ORs). While a significant number of ORs — aka jawans — retire while in their thirties, officers generally retire in their forties and fifties. The latter, as this book admits, are economically secure while the former have to struggle in Civvy Street for their survival.

Written partially in anecdotal style, this book’s chapters, Angry Old Soldiers and In Search of a Solution to the Problem, deal with one-rank-one-pension-related issues. Another chapter, SWOT Analysis and Classification of Jobs, gives details of the careers that officers can take up post-retirement. There are separate chapters on career opportunities in the corporate sector in India as well as abroad. The book also outlines various pros and cons of writing wills. It also describes their different types, like joint wills, mutual wills etc, with their respective advantages and disadvantages.

How one wishes there was a separate chapter on career prospects for ORs whose educational profile has improved vastly over the years. There are impressive numbers of law, engineering and management graduates among these personnel who do not have the advantage of possessing "brass credentials" to impress recruiters in the civil sector and thus need guidance as well as inputs.

Premature Retirement is not a Right

Where rules provide for approval, voluntary retirement cannot be claimed as a matter of right : Supreme Court.
This may come as gloomy news for those seeking ‘voluntary’ or ‘pre-mature’ retirement as a matter of right.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court has held that where rules specifically provide for approval of request of voluntary retirement by a particular (competent) authority, then such retirement cannot be claimed as a matter of right. The Hon’ble Supreme Court rendered this decision while adjudicating a case involving an employee of Air India.

The ruling is in consonance with earlier law laid down by the higher judiciary on the subject. Even prior to the latest ruling, it had been consistently ruled by Hon’ble Courts that where rules provided discretion of the authorities in grant of voluntary retirement, it (retirement) could not be claimed as a matter of right. Of course, it has also been held time and again that such discretion cannot be exercised arbitrarily or discriminately by the concerned authorities and the ‘Right to Equality’ can also not be infringed in this regard. More can be seen on the ruling by clicking here.
Posted by Navdeep / Maj Navdeep Singh at 5:27 AM

Pay and Perks Armed Forces

‘We The People’ by Barkha dated 30 March on 24x7 and further to my views on ‘Pay & Perks’ Armed Forces (Posted earlier on the Dreamers Club). I feel the issue of life time pay package and career progression of Armed Forces Offrs vis-à-vis civil bureaucrats anomaly is not being correctly addressed or I will say being projected to the populace by our Retd Senior Offrs spokesmen on various TV Channel chat shows or in print media.

A bureaucrat generally becomes JS or equivalent (60% of the cadre) in 15 yrs plus and thereafter draws a Maj Gen pay package for almost over 15 yrs of his service. Only two percent of army offrs reach this rank and draw the benefit for about 5 years. Same is the case with Brigs/ Directors.

Army offrs when on deputation or otherwise are at the same rank or lower where in our bureaucrat friends move on deputation on a higher grade/ appointment.

Order of Precedence as laid down in GOI Notification No 33-Pers/79 of Jul 79 gives out that a Col is above DM/DC/DIG Police. However ranks worn by police have no equation with those of the Army.

Our Sr Retd Offrs need to highlight these major anomalies to the populace as and when they get suitable opportunities to express their opinions on various platforms.

Col RC Patial, SM