Disability Pension- Presentation to RRM

Dear Friends,
Jai Hind.
An email and its attachment just received from , is reproduced below. You may also like to visit the Disabled War Veterans website click here.
In service of Indian Military Veterans
Chander Kamboj

From: hnhanda
Sent: 23 October 2010 10:03
Subject: Disability Pension- A Presentation to RRM
I had been invited by Brig Gulia, Chairman IESL, to give a presentation to the RRM and other very senior officers. The Secy (ESW) and Gen Shankar Roy Choudhary were present. Date of presentation 22 Oct 10.
I was overwhelmed at the response received from those attending the gathering on the occasion. In fact the RRM congratulated me and requested a copy of my presentation for him to take with him to study. I gave him along with my presentation click here, a copy of Medical responsibilities of other countries specifying the responsibility of Prosthetics. Along with that, I gave him a copy of the AFT judgment specifying that:

War Disabled should receive Maximum pay of rank as they are deemed to have served 33 years.

Gratuity and other concessions should be made available to Short Service Commissioned officers.

At the end of the presentation, he promised to act on the issues especially on Data of War Disabled on an emergent basis and also take up anomalies on account pay raised by others. On this score, he advised that each item to be acted upon should be on a seperate sheet rather than on the same page. He also promised to put a halt on unnecessary appeals on AFT judgments.

I thank Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, who granted me permission to use his earlier article, which I did to the maximum and Satnam for his advice when formulating my presentation. I thank Brig Gulia and his team for providing me the opportunity to present our case. I had to also speak on behalf of Veterans and War Widows as their representatives had to cancel at the last minute.
(Foot note- In my presentation I brought out the 5th Pay commission acceptance, the widows pension not being increased and the other aspects discussed in Inder’s office albeit in my own way.
Hari Handa)
Best wishes and regards,
Col H N Handa
President, Disabled War veterans(India)
Click Links Below:
Disabled War Veterans
Presentation to RRM by Col HN Handa to RRM on 22 Oct 2010

Bihar elections- Democracy Demolished and Demonised

The Citizen's Right to Know
Electoral Reforms : Key to Effective Democracy
Jagdeep S. Chhokar
It needs to be reiterated that the judgement is not about disqualifying people from contesting elections, it is about disclosure of the criminal background of the candidates, if any.

India is often referred to it as a vibrant and vigorous democracy. This might well be justified compared to a large number of other countries that gained independence from colonial rule around the same time. There is however reason to be concerned about the health of our democracy and its future. Just because we have elections regularly, some might even say far too often, does not necessarily mean that we have an effective democracy. One view is that the kind of elections we have are the very anti-thesis of democracy. Following excerpts from a letter written to the editor of one of the newspapers in Ahmedabad on September 9, 1999 soon after the elections, testifies to this.

“Thank God! The vulgar cacophony, throwing of abuses and trading of charges by political parties with each other is over.

“All political parties have made narrow-minded, extremely bigoted ... statements against each other as if they were in the race to prove who was more conservative and backward and who would be the first to destroy this nation by such ideologies, as Taliban has done for Afghanistan!

“No wonder people showed fatigue and displayed lack of enthusiasm in the type of democratic exercise now repeatedly held to elect the begging candidates so that on being elected they can sit in power and loot us, and amass wealth and power for their dynasties.

“Their slogan seems to be, ‘Cast your vote in favour of one whom you want should amass wealth!’

“Are our aspirations being fulfilled, even minimum security of life and basic services like food, water, shelter being met by the system created?

“What democratic values these bunch of self-appointed leaders will propagate with such narrow-minded approaches. Our democracy ends the day we cast our vote.”

The Election Process
If democracy has anything to do with freedom – and freedom with responsibility – then the electoral system might well be the very heart of democracy. If this sounds like an over statement let me try and sketch briefly what all does the electoral system include. It determines who can or should be allowed to vote. When should electoral rolls be prepared, revised, and how? The formation, func-tioning including funding, etc. of political parties is also an integral part of the electoral system. Included also is the basic question, who can contest an election. Then comes the actual conduct of the election which is what is most associated with the electoral system. On what basis is the winner of the election decided is another key element of the electoral system. These are some of the pre-election and during election activities. There is a whole range of post election activities during which the outcome of the electoral process are managed, such as post election disputes, election petitions, formation of the government, and subsequent functioning of the government including issues such as defections. This illustrative list indicates the critical role of the electoral system in ensuring an effectively functioning democracy.
Read more click here

IESM donates towards Leh flood relief

Dear Colleagues,
The veterans under the aegis of the IESM, had voluntarily donated funds for the victims of the recent Leh floods. We wanted to hand over this amount to the Army authorities so that it could be utilised for genuine purpose. Accordingly, a team comprising Krit Joshipura, Satbir Singh, Vinod Gandhi and self handed over a cheque of Rs 2,75,000.00 to the Adjutant General Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal today at the Army HQ. His senior Staff colleagues were also present. The gesture was much appreciated and the event was covered by the Army PRO.

There seems some apprehension in the minds of some colleagues that the govt does not understand what OROP actually is and the onus of educating the officialdom lies on the ESM. While the concern on the subject is understandable, the assumption of govt ignorance may not be justified. Let us consider following facts:

The government has consistently rejected the demand for OROP. It may not be prudent to assume that they have been rejecting a demand without even understanding its basis.

The Madan Lal Khurana Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence in 2003 had computed the cost of OROP as Rs 613.78 Crore, which recommendation was finally rejected by the GOI. This exact figure could not have been possible if the understanding of OROP by the concerned were nebulous.

Recently the government has rejected OROP on administrative, legal and financial grounds. We should not be assuming that the government has rejected it without even knowing what the financial cost is, which implies their understanding of OROP.

OROP being our primary demand such concern is understandable. However, we should avoid imagining difficulties where probably these do not exist.
Best regards,
Lt Gen (Emeritus) Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Chairman IESM