Why have retired Army Cdrs/Vice Chiefs/ Chiefs been treated as a holier than other categories? In their cases OROP has been applied. Undoubtedly this is aplicable to their equivalents in all the Central Goverment Services. This shows that the IAS has ensured that their Secretary level and Cabinet Secretary level appointments are protected. Surely in their case no seperate terms of service were laid down giving them benefits in pensions also. The rules and the arguments must be the same for all. You may consider.
Thanks for all that you are doing,
Lt Gen V Madan (Retd)
Dear Gen Vijay Madan,
Your question is valid, and it is my bounden duty to answer it to the best of my ability. Here is what little I know on this subject.
The scales devised by the Sixth Pay Commission are "Of the IAS, for the IAS and created by the IAS" Others merely happen to be there. We soldiers are the "children of a lesser God" and the government makes it a point to rub it into us, whenever they can. Geographically, the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy is not very far from the IMA, but they did not have a Chetwode to give them the famous dictum. Over the years, they have evolved their own creed, and the slogan which is tattooed on their palms with invisible and yet patently legible ink runs as follows:
Your own career progression and place in the ceremonial table of precedence come first, always and every time.
The honour, welfare and the prosperity of the service to which you belong comes next
The interests of the teeming millions of citizens of the country come last always and every time.
In the pension structure, they have given to themselves a bonanza, since it is well known that nearly every direct entrant into the IAS and the IPS who is worth his salt does rise to the level of a Secretary, Special Secretary or a DGP. And all of them are on a par with the Army Commanders. In the Armed Forces (now known as the 'harmed forces') no more than six or seven officers rise to this exalted level per year. Consequently, the total number of retired Cs-in-C of all the three services of the pre-2006 vintage has been estimated to be about 90. Compare this with the number of officer pensioners, which has been estimated at over 35,000. Thus, we have given OROP to less than 0.25% of the total officer population.
I have a suggestion. Let just a few of these fortunate Army Commanders decline the bonanza meted out to them. The guiding rule for the vast majority of pensioners is a factor of 2.26. By this formula the revised pension of the Army Commanders (and equivalents) works out to Rs 29,380. The total amount surrendered by them will be about Rs 10,620 of which about Rs 3000 will go into Income Tax. The remainder money (i.e. Rs 7000) is a very small sacrifice for this noble cause. The message which this little gesture will send to our rulers can shake them. It will be far more effective than the demonstrations and the rallies which we have been organizing at great cost and effort.
It is also my belief that if the 'fortunate few' do not respond to this clarion call, they will become socially isolated in the evening of their lives, because the peer group has its own method of expressing discord. In the gatherings of veterans they will be seen as outcasts. And, indeed, if they do not speak up and join our movement for grant of justice, then we may be led to believe that the Chatwode's credo has been forgotten by them. They do not belong to our ilk any more.
With best wishes for a Merry Christmas to every one. May the Gospel of Jesus guide us, always and every time. God Bless.
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)
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