Friday, September 16,2016
CHANDIGARH: All Pay Commissions had former judges as presiding officers,
so one expected them to judge for themselves and not just accept what the
secretaries, who are IAS officers, fed them.
These presiding officers have been visiting military formations and units in field areas to see for themselves, the environments and conditions under which troops live and the nature of their work. Unfortunately, the military as a good host, has been laying out the red carpet for them and putting them up in well appointed guest rooms, which are quite apart from the accommodation and facilities available to the majority of the officers. So they carried a completely wrong impression of our living conditions in field areas and working environments therein.
These presiding officers have been visiting military formations and units in field areas to see for themselves, the environments and conditions under which troops live and the nature of their work. Unfortunately, the military as a good host, has been laying out the red carpet for them and putting them up in well appointed guest rooms, which are quite apart from the accommodation and facilities available to the majority of the officers. So they carried a completely wrong impression of our living conditions in field areas and working environments therein.
In economic
life, happiness is relative and not absolute. How could anyone, if blessed with
an unbiased mind, fail to take note of the issues of early retirement,
extremely limited scope for career advancement, disturbed family life, the
element of risk to life and limb etc so palpably evident in the case of defence
personnel.
Factors
taken into account in every democracy, the world over is termed as 'the X
factor' and appropriately compensated. How is it that all the chairmen of the
Central Pay Commissions, (CPCs) starting with the 3rd CPC, (which dropped the
pension of defence personnel from 70 to 50 % and increased the civilian pension
from 30 to 50%t of the last pay drawn), so completely failed to exercise their
own judgment. And in the process overlook such visible issues.
Does all this reflect on the quality of our judicial cadres or is it that only those were selected who would accept what is fed to them by the secretaries of these commissions. As for themselves ( these secretaries from the IAS ) the case can best be summed up with the Punjabi saying, ‘anna whanday raorian mur mur apneyan nu deh’ (one blinded by family affinity distributes goodies to only his own ilk). These secretaries cornered maximum benefits for their own cadre,s with the chairmen being none the wiser.
Does all this reflect on the quality of our judicial cadres or is it that only those were selected who would accept what is fed to them by the secretaries of these commissions. As for themselves ( these secretaries from the IAS ) the case can best be summed up with the Punjabi saying, ‘anna whanday raorian mur mur apneyan nu deh’ (one blinded by family affinity distributes goodies to only his own ilk). These secretaries cornered maximum benefits for their own cadre,s with the chairmen being none the wiser.
Take the
case of grant of Non Function Financial Upgradation (NFFU). If any service
deserved to be granted the NFFU, it is the militarybecause of the very early
retirement and extremely limited scope for advancement in career, even if one
overlooks hard living conditions and risk to life and limb etc. Yet it is only
the military that was denied NFFU while it was granted to over four dozen
central services: something even the dim witted cannot miss. And yet our worthy
judge of the 6th CPC remained oblivious of this fundamental flaw in his final
judgement.
Mishandling
of this one issue of NFFU makes a complete nonsense of the Sixth CPC report,
even if one is to overlook over two dozen anomalies relating to the pay and
allowances for the military.
Did these
justices ever looked into the composition of the team of over 100 officers
assembled each time, to work out the nitty gritty of the report and notice that
there has never been a defence services officer in these teams, though the
defence services form the largest group after the Indian railways: an overall
30% of the total strength being considered.
While much
of the forests in the country have disappeared, wild life greatly depleted and
well forested hills in the Himalayas a rare sight, yet being part of the lot
assembled to work out the details in the report, they positioned themselves
alongside the top bracket, with the chairmen remaining oblivious of these
manipulations. How could these representatives of the judiciary on whose wisdom
and fair play the nation places so much of its faith, allow the committees,
whose chairmen they were,to act with repeated bias and hand out such an unfair
deal to the military.
The
chairman of 7th CPC informs us that the job of an IAS officer is difficult as
he has to deal with 'Sarpanches' and others in public. If only these worthies
had done their job with dedication and honesty, there would have been no Red
Corridor, running right through the centre of their country, consisting of over
200 districts, where the Indian governments writ does not fully run.
The 7thCPC
has given even higher allowances to civil officials for the hardship of living
in comfortable bungalows, and much less to the military soldiers living in the
comfort of a bunker or a tent at some remote high altitude location that has
life threatening high altitude sickness built into the situation.
These
judges are selected by the bureaucracy and there lies the catch. Carrots are
always part of the establishment. How is it that not one amongst them has been
able to judge for himself, display fairness, go into the details placed before
him and do justice to the military!
At the other end the top brass of the army has completely failed to abide by the advise given to them as they marched through Chetwode Hall.("The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time." ) They repeatedly let down the rank and file. At last this attitude appears to be changing! Hopefully persistently!
The present assignment of Justice Reddy, concerning One Rank One Pension (OROP), does not require months and months to complete the work, where there are only four main issues which are simple and straightforward. These are easy to resolve, and require no specific skills and certainly not much time. Nor does it call for touring the whole country to get the same views from every one. These issues are so simple, so why this façade of inter-acting with ex-servicemen all over the country and seeking presentation after presentation from endless ex-servicemen associations and individuals.
No one need expect much from Justice Reddy. It is a mere repeat of the same old charade of constituting committees of secretaries where the outcome is pre-determined.
At the other end the top brass of the army has completely failed to abide by the advise given to them as they marched through Chetwode Hall.("The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time." ) They repeatedly let down the rank and file. At last this attitude appears to be changing! Hopefully persistently!
The present assignment of Justice Reddy, concerning One Rank One Pension (OROP), does not require months and months to complete the work, where there are only four main issues which are simple and straightforward. These are easy to resolve, and require no specific skills and certainly not much time. Nor does it call for touring the whole country to get the same views from every one. These issues are so simple, so why this façade of inter-acting with ex-servicemen all over the country and seeking presentation after presentation from endless ex-servicemen associations and individuals.
No one need expect much from Justice Reddy. It is a mere repeat of the same old charade of constituting committees of secretaries where the outcome is pre-determined.
(The author is a former Vice Chief of Army Staff)
(Source- Via Gp e-mail from Chander Prakash, (Vet)
NFUs itself is unjustified for IAS Officers the way it is being used.In fact JCOs ORs need to have time scale promotion policy or at least Financial benefits must accrue. Most soldiers Sepahi, NK Havildar are made to leave service for want of vacancies which is not in their control.This snatches their livelihood & forced unemployment for remaining period. Pension does compensate the deficiency when it is most required.
ReplyDeleteThese presiding officers have been visiting military formations and units in field areas to see for themselves, the environments and conditions under which troops live and the nature of their work. Unfortunately, the military as a good host, has been laying out the red carpet for them and putting them up in well appointed guest rooms, which are quite apart from the accommodation and facilities available to the majority of the officers. So they carried a completely wrong impression of our living conditions in field areas and working environments therein.-A known crime and blunderdone our officers themselves.
ReplyDelete"How is it that all the chairmen of the Central Pay Commissions, (CPCs) starting with the 3rd CPC, (which dropped the pension of defence personnel from 70 to 50 % and increased the civilian pension from 30 to 50%t of the last pay drawn), so completely failed to exercise their own judgment. And in the process overlook such visible issues."When this happened,our chiefs were playing golf
ReplyDeletePerfect and absolute truth and facts.
ReplyDeleteThese facts and truth should be basis to resolve all issues and matters.
Babus cleverly manipulate one and all ...netas ,judiciary / judges ,generals....
By the time mily realises ,they are struck in those designed govt resolutions of down gradation in the lower slots.Then activity starts .projections,appeals....,committees.
..and finally prisoner of systems. Nothing moves .veterans fade away.
Gen Harwant has done detailed study ,great analysis and thus these inferences.
All esm should base their activity and pursuit on these truthful facts and inferences.
These officers and IAS will keep fighting,what the hell I have to do to get my dues DL33?
ReplyDelete"The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time." -But alas it is reversed now
ReplyDeleteWere you not in service those days sir? What have you done while in service? Writing article now is of no use. Of course we did not have enough facilities those days to know about all these things. But as VCOAS were you now aware that injustice is done to the armed forces especially to PBORs. Now why do you bring olden days? Your pension was never brought down to 50% but the PBORs pension was brought down to 34 to 37% and not 50% as you say. Since you were not affected because of all these that time you did not come out in open. Now we understand why all these things are discussed by all retired Generals and for whose benefits. Jai Hind.
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DeleteIt is said that justice is blind. Delivered agents r d judges. Understanding that they r biased against the afs by babus,netas etc except d common citizens during service tennure but what impedes justice to d afs delivered by the retd judges? As a common Indian I can conclude that CPC chairmen r bribed handsomely to award military with a few bones that is normally thrown to stray dogs as no other departments cannot b antagonized for fear of trade unionism. So d afs r vulnerable to all possible atrocities. However jco/ors will continue to suffer the most as services top brasses seldom been moved by pbors state of life. NFU,Pay Suppression etc r holistically more appropriate to pbor too. But none seen taking up these issues for this neglected community during service and beyond. But Almighty Lord will take care of d pbors as there's none otherwise!
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ReplyDeleteWe, veterans did project the anomalies to Justice Reddy of the OMJC through the DESW. But those anomalies didn't reach him from DESW direct to him, and we cribbed about it. Moreover, there was a doubt in the minds of the PBOR veterans that officer veterans were hijacking their cause intentionally, thus there existed a mistrust in their minds. To overcome all these gaps, Justice Justice Reddy took to the 'All India Yatra' to listen the anomalies from the horse's mouth, understand, collect and collate all the them. It is wrong to find fault with the work he has undertaken and is in the process of winding up in a week or ten days. Even his job is done by now, he cannot break the journey he has undertaken halfway. I am sure that he will project all anomalies and the corrections required to the GOI truthfully. It is up to the adamant ego filled baureocrats to accept them and implement it. Blaming his way of work half way is indeed wrong. Now that he had collected most of the anomalies direct from the PBOR veterans across the country, there will be no trust deficit between the PBOR veterans and the officer veterans.
ReplyDeleteAll disscuss को गोलि मारो.आज कि तारिख में एक सिपाहि का सैलरी कम से कम एक तोला सोने का बराबर और पेनसन 80% होना चाहिए.सरकार अगर राजी नहीं होता हथियार भि हमारी जमीन भि हमारा.कृपा तीनो सेना के सेनापतियों को गुजारिश हे व अपने हक माँगे ना कि भिक.जय हिंद
ReplyDeleteso very right sir. The outcome is predetermined..
ReplyDeleteLt.Gen.(R) Harwant Sing's article is a pointer to the fact that the Top Brass are waking up to the situation arising out of the discriminatory treatment being meted out to military. It is a welcome change. Sri Mohanarangan Narayanan's doubt whether the Gen was unaware of this while in service is, though pertinent, emanates from misconception about the uniformed person's right to freedom of opinion and speech. If he had voiced the the same concern while serving, in all probability , would not have survived to write this blog.The question by M Narayanan reminds me of Kruschev's reply to a question as to why he did not object Stalin. So I do not blame him for his action as VCOAS.
ReplyDeleteWhat i see in his blog is the mind set that has been so discernible all through as how utterly unmindful they are about the woes of men called PBOR.
First thing to be done is to remove for good the nomenclature "PBOR" Call them a) Junior Officers (JCOs are Cl II Gazetted Officers) b) Senior Non Gazetted c) Non Gazetted and Air Men, Front line Soldier and Sea Warrior.
Give Same allowances to all whether officer or others and maintain the Pay Difference between officers and Junior Officer and below.All other perks must be equal. By virtue of certain quality required to become an officer an significant enhancement in pay is justified.
This will set aside, positively, most of the resentments prevalent among personnel other than commissioned officers.
This measure if implemented will boost the morale, efficacy and out put of the fighting force
How many raised points are in favour of PBORs? Where is the respect of the oaths taken on the name of constitution? Thanks God, we have a civilian government. I request to PM sir, please discard all the colonial rules and more involvement of civilian officers on the defence matters. I have seen three pay commissions and every successive pay commissions have degraded the status of the PBORs. I can’t hope anything from this pay commission also. Ultimately the PBORs are not going to get anything. The demand for increase of MSP for the JCOs is an afterthought. Well calculated move. If out of ten demands this demand is not accepted by the government, the rest nine demands will benefit only a particular community.
ReplyDeleteI have full faith on our PM and DM sir and also on all the bureaucrats. Please implement the 7th pay commission for the poor veterans as early as possible. We are in dire need of money to run our family as we get very very less pension and few thousands rupees as arrears will be always beneficial for us.
I also request the electronic and print media, don’t always write articles for the officers. Think for the poor PBORs who are 97% in Armedforce and write some articles for them also. You will get more respect and the poor veterans will talk about you. Straighten your .....
Demand EX Air Veteran
1. MSP of PBOR to be revised
2. Bottom scales to be multiplied by index 3
3. Diploma X group should start with a rank of JWO and 4 years after WO and cancell X gp pay system, with grade pay 4200 equal to civil( old)
In army and navy, diploma personal are given JCO/PO, over the status and money they get X gp pay too.
5. Either follow US AF pay system or come back to 3 or 4 CPC, in which JWO salary equal to an entry level officer.
6. Stop discrimination - in mess, canteen, Echs, accommodation etc. Never miss use men for there personal use.
7. Stop officers ration
My dear abcint, why you are copying my comments? Please try to write something of your own.
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