Monday, February 9, 2009

Army Veterans to Return Medals Over Pension Row

PTI Photo/ Manvender Vashist
Lt Gen Raj Kalyan shows his gallantry medals before returning them to the President Pratibha Patil demanding the implementation of 'one-rank-one-payment'

Outlook India, New Delhi | Feb 08, 2009


After the government rejected the ex-servicemen's demand of 'One Rank One Pension', several retired officers and jawans have decided to return their gallantry medals to the President on Sunday.

"Over 300 general rank officers along with 10,000 officers and jawans have decided to return their medals to the Government. Why should we keep our medals with us when the establishment does not have any respect for us?" said Vice Chairman of the Indian Ex servicemen Movement (IESM) Maj (Gen retd) Satbir Singh said.

He said the protesting ex-servicemen will gather at Jantar Mantar here and pack their medals in sacks and surrender them to the President.

Since the President is not in the capital, the medals would be handed over to a senior officer at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Singh said.

Beside the mass-surrender of medals, the veterans would take out a three-kilometre-long protest march starting and terminating at Jantar Mantar.

Members of IESM has been sitting on a relay hunger strike at Jantar Mantar since December 16 last year.

During the last Parliament session, Government had stated that it was not contemplating providing 'One rank, One pension' to similarly placed officers and jawans after their retirement.

With the pay commissions increasing the pay of armed forces and security personnel every 10 years, the gap between the pension received by those who retired before the implementation of the respective commissions widened.

Similarly placed retired officers (with same ranks and number of years of service) were receiving different amounts as pension, which has been opposed by lakhs of ex-servicemen all across the country.
Army Veterans to Return Medals Over Pension Row, New Delhi

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