virendarpal singh chauhan Today at 11:39 AMTo, u must have seen in all the TV channels last night and read in today's morning papers as to how the Govt has " ANNOUNCED A BONANZA OF Rs 2300 CRORES TO THE FAUJI BHAIES " by granting them the long pending demands of OROP (One Rank, One Pension). Nothing can be further from the truth.I shall just high light a few points, since typing with five thumbs is a problem for me..1. The Genesis. The Sixth Central Pay Commission ( SCPC ) ruled that the pensions should be fixed at 50 % of the " MINIMUM OF THE RANK IN THE PAY BAND, CORRESPONDING ". Instead of doing that, the wily babus at MOD, in cahoots with their counter parts in Finance, placed the pensions of Excervicemen ( ESM ) at 50 % of the " MINIMUM OF THE PAY BAND, CORRESPONDING". Since, all the offrs from Lt Col, Colonel, Brigadier and Maj Generals were in the same Pay Band-4, it meant all these offrs were placed similarly at the bottom of this pay band for pension fixation ! . Imagine four different ranks and grades of offrs drawing the same pension , irrespective of the differences in length of service and ranks !. The only difference in their pensions was due to the differences in their Grade Pays . So, for example , the Brigadier ju st got Rs 100/ more than a Col, as pension !. Such cock eyed fixing was a miracle of illogic created by the Babus !. With such wrong action by the Govt, the demand for OROP gained momentum.
2. OROP. This is a long pending demand of ESM , since 1982. Since the service conditions of Army are different ( like 92 % of Soldiers retiring between ages of 35 and 42 and the remaining 8% - the JCOs like Subedars - retiring before 45 yrs of age, in order to keep the young age profile of the army ) , there will be at least five CPCs in the life of an ESM. With every new CPC, he gets shunted further down than his serving brethren or the recently retired men. As a result, there are many families where in a retired Subedar (now around 70 yrs old) gets much lesser pension than his grandson who retired recently from the same army as a Sepoy ! It sounds ridiculous. But, it happens in our MBM , thanks to the short sightedness and mean mindedness of our officialdom. There are many more such reasons / instances . But, due to my limitations, I omit them here.Hence, the demand for Same Pension For Same Rank persons who retired with the same length of service., irrespective of date of retirement.(That is the gist of OROP) .Two Cabinet Committees found these to be correct and implementable. But, like a jinxed case, in both instances the Govts fell just before the final decisions were implemented. The wily babus then held the sway!. ' FILES " were " REOPENED " with the implied delays. All major parties flaunt this concept of OROP in their manifestos to win over the ESM before the elections and then forget it. Many parliamentary, all party committees(the latest was in Jan 2012) too recommended the implementation of OROP. But, the Babudom is hell bent on denying this . And, since our politicians are dependent on the babus to rule as well as make the black money , the actual implementation never happened.The latest drama is what happened yesterday.
3. Comparison with Gp A Civil Services. When I became an army offr in June 1965, my basic was Rs 450/. compared to the basic of Rs 400/ for IAS at entry level. This historical advantage has remained even now at entry level. But, at every CPC from 3rd CPC onwards , the Army got short changed. And, the bureaucracy with their wily ways , increase their own remuneration and perks, while cutting down those of others, including the Army Offrs. For example, all of them become Joint Secretary ( they equals it with a Major General ) and more than 90% become additional Secy ( equal to Lt General ) while less than 9 % and 2.5 % army offrs reach these levels, due to the pyramid nature of army's hierarchy. To overcome this , a running pay band of pay suggested was vetoed by the babus till the 6th. CPC. Also, in the latest CPC, they introduced the concept of Non Functional Upgradation ( NFU ) for themselves , where in all Gp A Central Govt Offrs ( like IRS, IA&AS, IPS etc) pick up the same grade ( and hence pay and perks ) within two years of his course mates in the IAS picking up a grade. For example, an IAS chap becomes a Jt Secy in 18 yrs of service. So all Central Govt offrs draw the pay and allowances of a Jt Secy within 20 yrs of service, even if there is no vacant official position for him to occupy !. Funny, eh?. Yes, it is a loot of the innocent tax payer's money !. Now, this NFU has been denied for the army offrs on the spacious plea, that they do not fall into Gp A Services ( the fact that the entry and subsequent pay bands and grade pays are similar is ignored ). This has resulted in degradation of the status (and not just pay) of army offrs vis- a-vis other Central Govt offrs in recent years. Also, at 20 yrs of service, the best army offr is still sweating out as a Colonel. The best now get promoted to the next rank of Brigadier at 27 yrs and to Maj Generals with 31 - 32 yrs. Due to the pyramid nature of hierarchy, this is a given. But, the steps to nullify this disadvantage through running pay bands and NFUs are NOT sanctioned by the Govt (read the powerful babus ! ).
4. False Propaganda. The babus are at their Goebbleian best in spreading false hood and use words to tide over inconvenient facts.The Press Information Bureau hand out, issued last night , starts with the news that the Exservicemen had a long pending demand for OROP, where in the demand was made for similar pension for soldiers who have retired in the same rank with the same years of service, irrespective of date of retirement . Of course, this is a fact and the truth . In the very next sentence , they say that the Cabinet has decided to sanction Rs 2300 crores to improve the benefits to the Exservicemen ( ESM ). That too is a fact. What the fork tongued, present day Goebbles have done is that they have smoothly disconnected the two sentences. If a casual reader tends to assume that this amount is to fulfill the demand for OROP , he can't be faulted. At the same time, the Babus have not said any lie !. They have only, deliberately confused a lay m an ! , while not doing anything to grant the much abused OROP !.
5. .No Govt Largesse . Again, the PIB is artfully concealing the truth here.
There have been judgements by two different Armed Forces Tribunals ( Deemed to be equivalent to High Courts ) against the orders of the GOI, subsequent to the 6th CPC. Also, the FULL BENCH of the CAT has passed a judgement last year against the stupid Govt order on fixing of pension at 50% of the MINIMUM OF PAY IN THE PAY BAND instead of 50% of the RANK PAY in the band. The announcement of yesterday's decision of the cabinet is an off shoot of these 3 adverse judicial judgements against the Govt. However, there is not even a mention of this fact in the Govt announcement. On the other hand, they make it appear as if they did this because their hearts bleed for the " Fauji Bhai ". I have never seen such a lot of shameless frauds, as herein .
6. NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ARMY. 3 Out of the 4 orders issued, are relevant to both the men in uniform and the civilians . While no one will grudge this equal sharing of benefits, what grates is the presentation that this is something exclusive to the " Faujies". The only concession now, which is not applicable to civilian counter parts , is the one on dual pensions. Since, the Jawans retire around 35 years of age, many of them find jobs on retirement. And, once they retired from the second job, there was a restriction on he drawing a second pension . That he worked for it and earned it, does not matter to the stone hearted babus. This anomaly has been now removed, with the rulings of yesterday. Since a Central Govt employee retires around 58 / 60 yrs, this rule of double pension is NOT applicable to him , in any case !.7. Lack of Funds. Another excuse of the Govt is " Lack of Funds " when ever any benefit for the ESM is talked about. The irony is that when the Rs 2300 crores expenditure for " Fauji Bhaies" was talked of as the latest BONANZA, in the same breath y'day, the Govt announced Rs 7400 crores as expenses for addl DA to all the Govt employees and Rs 2 lakh crores for the State Elec boards. Not to mention the lakhs of crores of rupees wasted/ stolen in the various scams.Just sheer misleading duplicity of the babudom!.
8. Disconnect between the Govt and the military. It is a very disturbing fact that presently , there is a lot of disconnect between the babus and the men in uniform - the two vital organs of the Govt . The efforts of the babus to deny men in uniform their rightful place in decision making is not the only cause. The mean minded manipulations of the babus in the recent years while dealing with cases of status and pay ,only lead to loss of faith in this category . In my days, we used to blindly repose our faith in the " SARKAR" . But, with the advent of RTI and information explosion, the young and the old in uniform can no more be fooled. And, when there is opaqueness in dealings, the nation will finally suffer. A very disturbing thought.To sum up, what the Govt sanctioned y'day is nowhere near the OROP demand of the ESM. They just undid the harm they did earlier by wrongly putting every one at the bottom of the respective pay bands, for fixation of pensions!. Interestingly, no Babu has been either identified or punished for this blooming mistake !. Also, why should the pensioners be penalised in terms of lesser pensions received since Jan 2006 for the mistakes of the babudom ?. The date for the new pension will be fixed for a future date, as per news papers !. There is no mention about the pension lost for the last seven years !. The silence of the lambs can be misleading many a time.
Well,I am sending the above few lines to my friends in the civil to make them wise about the ground realities. The men in uniform, due to constraints of discipline, can't come out with truths against the Govt. And, the ESM are spread thinly all over the country, without any central organization to speak of. So, the Govt is having a field day with half truths and white lies. This is my humble and limited effort to give the " Other Side " of the story to my friends, the thinking citizens of the nation .
Now, you know "Fauji Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai
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