An Open letter to Mr. PM from a current Army Soldier. (BY MADDY · AUGUST 17, 2015)

Dear Prime Minister,

I am pained to see the embarrassment being inflicted on your government due to promises made without thinking.                                                                                                                                                                                     I would like to suggest an out of box idea to you. As it is your own Defence Minister feels the army has lost its relevance due to no war in last four decades. Thus, is there a need for an army at all? So, in order to guard the borders, you can simply increase the numbers in paramilitary forces and disband the army. 

They are just a waste of money, I tell you. There are so many positives in doing away with the army. 

Please look at the positives:-                                                                                                                                                                                               1. The entire defence budget will be there for populist schemes and subsidies.

2. There will be no scams in defence procurements (because you know it as well as we do the scams in defence procurement is rampant.)

3. PMF retire at 60 years, so you don’t need to worry about facing demands on One Rank One Pension from them.

4. You already have a chief of army staff who will bend over backwards to oblige any suggestion so there will be instant acceptance from the army.

5. The land bank of army will become free to be sold to Adani, Ambani and other corporate houses, who can drive your pet scheme ‘Make in India.’

6. Not to forget that you would also become the first leader in the world to take such a step. Therefore, a Nobel Prize for peace and host of other prizes wouldn’t be too far away.

Please don’t worry about the logistics involved in achieving this ground-breaking objective. Just give the forces 2 years to resettle their personnel. These people can go on study leave and look for alternative employment by 2018.

By when it would be nearing elections, thereby giving you lakhs of crores for your schemes. You can use the spare money to fund your 5-star campaigns in 2019 LS elections. Army is anyway not a vote bank, so their vote loss will not matter.

The question may arise as to what you will do with the army equipment. Well most of what we use is obsolete, have run sell by date and is unfit for any real use thus the scrap value will add to your kitty.

Imagine no army, no veterans, no OROP and most importantly we will no longer be threats to your independence day celebrations.

Who can stop you from becoming a legendary figure in history?

Please do consider my proposals.

Your well wisher

A Soldier.                                                                              

(Source- Illogical Indian) 

For the first time in the history of Republic Day, Ex-Army servicemen will not be part of Parade.

 · JANUARY 23, 2016

To be part of the Indian Army is an honor in itself. Army is one of the most respectable job place in India and on every Republic Day, they carry out a parade on Rajpath. The most unique thing about this parade from all these years have been the Ex-Servicemen, who also parade on the streets of Rajpath.

But for the first time in the history of Republic Day, the Ex- servicemen have decided to boycott the parade.  “ If the government wants to show everyone that they have done so much for us by implementing OROP, then they are wrong. It is like letting us down. We have done so much for our country and now we feel cheated”, said one of the veterans.

OROP is a scheme that will ensure that the same pension will be paid to personnel retiring at the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of when they retired. According to statistics, there is a difference of 82% between the pensions of sepoys retiring in 1996 and those in 2006. Among officers, the difference is 53%. Hence, without the implementation of OROP, ex-servicemen are faced with a very unfair scenario- in return for their service to our country, they have only a few years of financial strain in store.

The NDA government promised OROP to the veterans but  the scheme is only used for playing politics and it’s implementation still looks like a far cry. “So many assurances on one side but nothing is changing on ground. There is NATO (No Action Talk Only) from them“, Retd. Wing Commander S D Karnik said. However Manohar Parrikar defended the government saying, “I remember I said in January that OROP will be operationalised by July.”

The government should urgently look into this issue as it is not good sign if the veterans of the country feel let down by the government.

(Source- Illogical indian)

Pre-2006 pensioners with less than 33 years of service

As everybody is aware, the orders regarding calculation of pension of pre-2006 retirees based on minimum of pay within the pay band rather than minimum of the pay band itself, with arrears from 01-01-2006 rather than 24-09-2012, have already been issued for all Central Government pensioners.

On a similar analogy, many decisions by various Benches of the Central Administrative Tribunal (and then upheld by the High Courts) have been pronounced delinking the service requirement of 33 years for grant of full pension for pre-2006 retirees at par with post-2006 retirees for whom there is no such requirement. Some Special Leave Petitions preferred by the Government against such orders were also dismissed, though not by way of detailed orders.

The matter for issuance of orders in this regard for similarly placed retirees is currently being examined Department of Pensions & Pensioners Welfare, Ministry of Law & Justice and Ministry of Finance. The file is currently pending with the Law Ministry.

This is for general information in view of the multiple queries in this regard. 

(Source- Indianmilitary service benefits blog)

Evolution of the Cockpit

Still want to be a pilot?

1903 Wright Flyer 

Spirit of St. Louis 

Douglas M-2 

Bellanca C.F. 

Fokker D.VII 

Supermarine Spitfire Mk. VII 

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 F-8 

Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a 

Bell X-1 

Boeing B-29 

Grumman G-21 

De Havilland DH 106 Comet 

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon 

Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird 

Douglas DC-7

Sud Aviation Caravelle 

Concorde 

Boeing 747-8 

Boeing 787 

Airbus A320 

Airbus A380

(Source- Via e-mail from YR Raghavan, Veteran) 

IESM LETTER TO RM ON OROP ANOMALIES

21^st January 2016

The Raksha Mantri

South Block, Ministry of Defence

New Delhi

Urgent Need to Rectify Anomalies in OROP
in Govt notification dated 7 Nov 15

Dear Shri Manohar Parrikar ji

Please refer to Govt executive letter dated 26 Feb 14, press release dated 5 Sep 15, Govt notification dated 7 Nov 15 and 14 Dec 15. Please also refer to the statement made by MOS Defense Sh Rao Inderjit Singh in Parliament on 2 Dec in reply to question asked by Sh Rajeev Chandrashekhar regarding implementation of OROP. (All attached)

One Rank One Pension was approved by UPA Govt in budget dated 17 Feb 14 and then by NDA Govt in their budget dated 10 Jun 14. UPA Government issued an executive order dated 26 Feb 14 for the implementation of OROP dues to veterans at the earliest. This was never implemented by the MOD nor a demand note was ever raised. The approved definition of OROP by two Governments is given below.

One Rank One Pension (OROP) implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces Personnel retiring in the same rankwith the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to beautomatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.

OROP implies that a senior rank soldier should never draw pension less than his junior rank soldier. This cardinal principle is the soul of OROP and must never be violated.

Government issued a notification on 7 Nov 15 for implementing OROP. Government reiterated above-mentioned definition of OROP in the letter but introduced some conditions in the notification that completely destroy the definition approved by two parliaments. These conditions have created four anomalies which completely violates the definition and thereby, the soul of OROP. These anomalies are discussed in detail in succeeding paragraphs.

1)    Fixation of Pension on calendar year of 2013 instead of FY of 2014: Fixation of pension as per calendar year 2013 would result in past retirees getting less pension of one increment than the soldier retiring today. This will result in past retirees drawing lesser pensions than present retirees. This will completely destroy definition of OROP approved by two Parliaments and will also result in loss of one increment across the board for past pensioners in perpetuity.

2)    Fixation of pension as mean of Min and Max pension: Fixing pension as mean of Min and Max pension of 2013 would result in more anomalies wherein same ranks with same length of service will draw two or more different pensions thus violating the very principle of OROP. This issue was discussed with RM in various meetings and after due deliberations it was decided that accepting highest pension of each rank in the year would meet the requirement as base of pension.

3)    Payment wef 1^st Jul 14 instead of 1^st Apr 14: OROP has been approved in budget of 2014-15 by two parliaments. As per norms of Government, all proposals approved in budget are applicable from 1^st April of that FY. In the case of OROP, the Govt had issued specific orders to its applicability wef 1^st April 14. Hence implementation date for OROP from 1^st July will be against the Parliament approval. Changing the date would result in loss of 3 months emoluments for OROP across the board. However, if OROP implementation date is to be kept as 1^st July, then the base pension should also be accepted as per the PPOs of July 2014.

4)    Pension Equalisation every five year: Pension equalisation every five year will result in a senior rank soldier drawing lesser pension than a junior rank soldier for five years thus OROP definition will be violated for five years. This will also result in permanent violation of definition as fresh cases will come up every year.

These anomalies will result in lesser pensions to widows, soldiers, NCOs and JCOs than what will be due to them on approval of OROP. This will result in veterans not getting OROP as per approved definition and will create large discontentment across all ranks.

There is a need to have a relook at the pensions of Hon Nb Subedars, Majors and Lt Cols.

a)     Some Havildars are granted rank of Hon Naib Subedar in view of their exemplary service. These soldiers are not granted pension of Naib Subedar thus making the Hon rank just ceremonial. It is requested that Hon Naib Subedars should get pension of a Naib Subedar rather than that of a Havildar. Similarly, this must be accepted as a principle and it should be applicable to all Hon ranks in case of NCOs and JCOs.

b)    There are only a few Majors as veterans. Moreover no officer is retiring in Major rank now. In the past, officers were promoted to Major rank after completing 13 yrs of service whereas present officers are getting promotion of Lt Col in 13 yrs. It will be justified to grant all pensioners of the rank of Major, minimum pension of Lt Col as they cannot be compared to present retirees as officers are not retiring as Majors any more. Number of such affected officers is not more than 800 and will not cause heavy burden to Govt.

c)     Similarly, all pre-2004 retiree Lt Cols should get the minimum pension of full Col. Presently all officers retire in the rank of Colonel hence all Lt Col equivalents should be granted min pension of Colonels.

In view of above you are requested to rectify these anomalies and issue addendum to notification issued on 7 Nov 15 for implementation of OROP. We strongly believe that there will be no requirement of judicial committee for attending to anomalies creeping up in implementation of OROP. Grant of increase in pension in case of honorary ranks and Majors and Lt Col must also be approved as a good will gesture.

This letter is being signed by three major organizations with the approval of more than 200 organizations. List of such organizations is attached.

      sd/-                                sd/-                                                   sd/-

Lt Gen Balbir Singh        Col Inderjit Singh                        Maj Gen Satbir Singh

Chairman IESL              Chairman AIEWA                           Chairman IESM
Advisor UFESM              Chairman UFESM                          Advisor UFESM

Copy to:

• Mr Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, North Block, Finance Ministry, Government of India
• Mr Jayant Sinha, MoS, Finance, North Block, Finance Ministry, Government of India
• General Dalbir Singh, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, Chief of Army Staff
• Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC, Chief of the Air Staff & Chairman Chiefs of Staffs Committee (CoSC)
• Admiral RK Dhowan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC, Chief of Naval Staff

(Source- Via Gp e-mail)

Performance review of 122 babus on, could face action - Govt Cracked Whip On 58 Bureaucrats Till Date





The Centre is reviewing the performance of 122 deputy secretary-level officials posted in various Union ministries and departments, for possible action under the service rules. The department of personnel and training (DoPT) on Tuesday wrote to the administrative officials of 34 departments, seeking inputs on review of the said officials under Rule FR 56(j) and Rule 48 of CSS (Pension) Rules, 1972.Rule FR 56(j) and Rule 48 of CSS (Pension) Rules empower the government to review retention in service of an offi cial who has attained 5055 years of age or has completed 30 years of service, “in public in erest“.
According to statistics cited in reply to a Parliament question during winter session last year, 58 bureaucrats have faced penalty, including compulsory retirement and pension cuts, for unsatisfactory performance since the Modi government came to power in May 2014.
Carrying forward the rend of penalising non-performing government officials, the DoPT has now asked he joint secretaries (administration) across 34 ministries departments to urgently give their inputs on the proposed review of 122 of them posted as deputy secretaries. The inputs would be forwarded to the review committee for a decision.
Of the 122 officials whose performance is being reviewed, the highest, 17 are posted in the defence ministry , followed by 13 in higher education, seven in health and family welfare and six each in commerce, food and public distribution, revenue and rural development ministriesdepartments.An official each are working with crucial departments like National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) and National Security Council Secretariat.

(Source- TOI)





QUOTING OF PAN CARD WEF 1.1.2016

(Source - Via e-mail from Carl Gomes Vet)