Why this bias against the Army?

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw with his troops
Recently an inspired news- item appeared in the Press (obviously at the instance of the IAS bureaucracy) ridiculing the Service Chiefs’ claim not to deflate the parity of the Army officials vis-a-vis the civil servants. The Army’s request is more than genuine. One fails to understand the IAS lobby’s blatant partisanship. The late Cabinet Secretary Nirmal Mukerjee, one of the best of the lot, described the IAS as an anachronism in post- 1947 Independent India and recommended its abolition and substitution by expert technocrats as in the rest of the world.

I am surprised at the bureaucracy’s partisan, one- sided criticism of the Army. It ignores the harsh reality like the non- family period being half of their service period. This partiality may be due to what is called in journalist jargon “ debt to repay” for some special scoop having been passed on to the paper (nothing wrong of course in a free Press — the only objection is why make the Army the whipping boy).

It is still more surprising that the Army’s case is being deflated deliberately by ignoring the shocking facts disclosed, namely that all DGPs (which are state-related posts) are placed above the Lieutenant General. By what reasoning is the demand to put the Generals in the same grade as the civilian DGP described as spurious?

More serious, Lieutenant Colonel had earlier the same pay as IAS Director (an officer between Deputy Secretary and Joint Secretary). But the revised scale now gives IAS Director Rs 14,000 more and even a non-IAS Director Rs 11,000 more than Lieutenant-Colonel.

Is the Army demand to keep the parity as earlier fanciful? Will the government have a second look at the claim of the Army which has genuineness written all over? Let us not forget that in our feudal setup, hierarchy sometimes carries more weight. That is why sometimes a Deputy Secretary would carry more clout than a university professor. Will the Centre ignore the babus and give the Army its well deserved pay and rank?

Justice RAJINDAR SACHAR (Retd), New Delhi
Why this bias against the Army?

Indeed, for a soldier, it’s not money alone but izzat that counts and which spurs him to face the enemy’s bullet! Amazingly, soldiery that was always held in high esteem in India has been downgraded. This despite an acute shortage of 13,000 defence officers in the past 10 years! Ironically, no politician or bureaucrat has ever thought about this and its consequences on national security.

For the armed forces to retain their traditional values of devotion and sacrifice, the Centre should restore their dignity and rank and look after their interests properly. When confronted with a similar situation, Second World War veteran Gen Omar Bradley of the US Army aptly said: “Inferior inducements bring second-rate men. Second-rate men bring second-best security. In war, there is no prize for the runner-up.”

Brig Govind Singh Khimta (Retd)

SCPC: Anomalies In Pension

While the Armed Forces serving personnel continue their just fight against the disparity in their revised pay scales, military pensioners too have been forced to join them for disparity in their pension. True, the pensions have been somewhat increased and some new concessions introduced, but it is the wide variation in the pensions of similarly placed pensioners that now is the bone of contention.

Past pensioners have been granted a fitment of 40 per cent for the calculation of pension. The new pension, however, will not be less than 50 per cent of the lower limit of the new pay bands plus the applicable grade pay. This may result in a huge difference between the pensions of old pensioners of different grades. In case of the Fifth Pay Commission, there were separate pay scales for each rank, the minimum of which was taken as the basis of pension. However, after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, there are only four pay bands. At the upper end, serving personnel in the scale of Rs 24,050-26,000 have now been moved to the pay band of Rs 39,200-67,000, while those in the fixed pay scale of Rs 26,000 have been placed at Rs 80,000. An officer, who was placed in the erstwhile scale of Rs 24,050-26,000 and who may have retired with a pension of Rs 13,000 as on December 31, 2005, would now receive a basic pension of Rs 29,380, while an officer, who retired in the earlier fixed scale of Rs 26,000 and who was also receiving the same pension, would now get Rs 40,000. Hence both officers on equal basic pension earlier would now have a difference of about Rs 11,000 between them There will be similar disparities down the echelon.

The disparities, notwithstanding, pensioners are satisfied over some new elements introduced by the commission. The minimum basic pension without DA has been fixed at Rs 3,500 and the maximum at Rs 45,000 as on January 1, 2006. The minimum disability pension has also been fixed at Rs 3,500. The government has also approved additional quantum for old pensioners. Now a pensioner on attaining 80 years of age will be granted 20 per cent extra basic pension. The said increase will be upgraded to 30, 40, 50 and 100 per cent on attaining the age of 85, 90, 95 and 100 years, respectively.
The same upgrading has also been accepted for family pensioners. The grant of full pension on completing 20 years service has also been accepted and the provision of 33 years service for earning full pension has been abolished.

A revised commutation has been implemented and the maximum amount of gratuity has been increased from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Constant attendance allowance for 100 per cent disability has been extended to civilian pensioners on the lines of that granted to Defence personnel. To overcome the problems of military pensioners, a decade and a half old One-Rank-One-Pension scheme already accepted by the Government, be implemented with immediate effect.

Lt Col Pritam Singh Jauhal
World war II Veteran
Founding President Indian Ex-Servicemen Society British Columbia

ESM Self Employment Schemes

Financial assistance is available under SIDBI's NEF (National Equity Fund) scheme upto rupees 50 lakh with the benefit of maximum soft loan upto Rs 10 lakh per project with 5 per cent rate of interest per annum. The objective of the scheme is to provide equity type support to entrepreneurs for setting up new projects in small scale sector, SSI and service enterprises and for rehabilitation of viable sick units in the SSI sector which fulfill the specified eligibility criteria. Assistance from NEF helps the small scale unit in strengthening their equity base and thereby improve their acceptability for term financing by primary lending institutions (PLIs).

SEMFEX-II scheme has been promoted with the assistance of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). It provides refinance to banks for financing for development of agriculture and allied activities, such as minor irrigation, farm mechanisation, mushroom cultivation, dairy, poultry, sheep and goat rearing, fisheries, plantation and horticulture agri-processing units including food processing, forestry, wasteland development, etc. NABARD supports bio-gas industries, small scale industries, tiny, cottage and village industries handloom and handicrafts and service sector activities in rural areas. Under this scheme, interest free Soft Loan Assistance for Margin Money (SLA-MM) under farm sector is provided. Refinance assistance is also available to transport vehicles. Ex-servicemen Transport Corporation, registered society and other institution can be formed to acquire a maximum of 30 transport vehicles under the SRTO Scheme.

SEMFEX-III scheme has been launched to help rehabilitate the ex-servicemen and widows to undertake rural industries. The scheme is operative in collaboration with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. There are 110 rural industries including service sector activities which have been identified viable for financing to ex-servicemen and widows. Under this scheme ex-servicemen will be considered as a special target group and their loan cases will be sanctioned on preferential basis. The facility of margin money grant will be at the rate of 30 per cent of the project cost upto rupees 10 lakh and above this amount upto rupees 25 lakh it will be 10 per cent of the remaining cost of the project. It means that an amount of rupees 3 and 4.5 lakh would be provided as grant subsidy for the loan amount of rupees 10 and 25 lakh respectively.

The borrower would be required to invest his own contribution (5 percent) of the project cost and the remaining 95 per cent of the project cost would be sanctioned by the KVIC/KVIB/banks. All the schemes within the purview of KVIC are financed through the State Khadi and Village Industries Boards or banks but in some cases the project can also be directly financed by the KVIC head officer, Mumbai. However, such cases will be admissible only after prior approval from KVIC. In case of bank finance scheme the KVIC has already placed a lumpsum deposit of margin money in advance with the corporate officer of each bank of a nodal branch designated by the bank in savings bank account in the name of KVIC. The lending institution would be fully responsible for recovery of consortium bank credit.The ex-servicemen can also avail free training facilities at the KVIC training centres. Eligible ESM and widows desirous of getting loans will have to apply to the concerned Zila Sainik Board/ Rajya Sainik Board (ZSB/RSB) on the prescribed form.

Lt Col HS Oberoi
New department to look after ESM
Self-employment Schemes for ESM and Widows
DGR, MOD: SEMFEX I/ II/ III
Comment: Excellent Self Employment opportunities for the ESM. One wonders how many widows and ESM have availed of this facility? How popular and attractive is this scheme? What methods are adopted by the Regimental Centres, Veteran Organisations and IESL to popularise these schemes? Or are these schemes only on paper?