Army People too Unhappy with Salaries!!

Army people too are unhappy with salary increase. The only people who are happy are the ones who run this country because for themselves they increased their pay as they wanted!
Friends whether it is Congress or BJP, or anybody else they are all same when it comes to keeping promises. Read this news item. And what media does? They pit an Army man against Oil Sector Officers on Zee TV and the army man too gleefully declares the Oil Strike demands unreasonable.. We wonder how much he was paid for saying that? And when his own brethren are unhappy too! & Why do you think they do not protest? It is only becasue of their disciplinary code.. or else are they Happy with the Govts? or the Bureucrats?

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TOI, Chennai: 8th Feb 2009:
Army veterans to return medals To Protest Against Govt Apathy Over Pension Today Rajat Pandit TNN New Delhi: Soldiers wear their medals with immense pride and honour. To lose them can be a gutwrenching and traumatic experience, but that is precisely what many of them will voluntarily do on Sunday.

A “large number” of ex-servicemen will return their gallantry awards and distinguished service medals to the President after a protest rally at Jantar Mantar in the Capital on Sunday in sheer disgust at the non-implementation of the “one-rank, one-pay (OROP)” principle as well as the “raw deal” given to armed forces by the 6th Pay Commission.

Among them will be Colonel (retired) Kanwar Bhardwaj and his wife, Shiksha, who will surrender the Shaurya Chakra awarded posthumously to their son, Captain Umang Bhardwaj, who died battling heavily-armed terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir in 2002. While the protest may resolve around pension, it has melded with the growing unease over continued apathy towards the services who, unlike their civilian counterparts, are bound by the disciplinary code not to protest.

Incidentally, even demands of serving military personnel over their new revised pay scales are yet to be fully resolved by the government. The creeping sense of being left behind now seems to have grown into powerful resentment, dissolving the distinctions of rank and hierarchy.

The jawans and havaldars who are coming for the protest have the support of their former bosses. “The country is not recognising the pillar which supports it,” said former Navy chief Admiral Sushil Kumar.

Added Col Bhardwaj, “The status of the armed forces, which are keeping the country safe, has been systematically downgraded by bureaucrats and politicians.

DISSENT IN THE RANKS

Ex-servicemen demand pay and pension on ‘One Rank One Pay’ basis as promised by different political parties in their election manifestoes.

Veterans claim that the Sixth Pay Commission has created four ranks within a rank — pre-1996, post-1996 to Dec 2005, post-Jan 2006 to Sept 2008 and post-Oct 2008.

Now, a havaldar who retired before 1996 draws less pension than a sepoy who retired after 2006.

The UPA government has rejected the demand, citing huge financial costs — over Rs 3,500 crore, with annual liabilities of Rs 700 crore.

The estimate includes payment of arrears from January 1, 1996, when the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission came into effect.

We’ve been pushed to the wall: Ex-servicemen
New Delhi: “We love India but we have been pushed to the wall. My wife will return my son’s Shaurya Chakra, while I will surrender my Sena Medal, awarded for gallantry in 1971,” said Col Bhardwaj. This was the general mood a day before a large number of ex-servicemen go to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to return their gallantry awards and service medals. They are returning them in protest against the non-implementation of “one-rank, one-pay” and the “raw deal” armed forces got by the 6th Pay Commission.

Former Army deputy chief Lt-General (retd) Raj Kadyan said, “My medals are my proudest possession but I will hand them over to the President, the supreme commander of the armed forces, for safe-custody till our demands are met.” The ex-servicemen feel they have been hoodwinked by successive governments on OROP despite virtually all political parties promising its implementation in their manifestos, election after election.

The governments, in fact, have even brushed aside recommendations by parliamentary committees to swiftly resolve “the disparity of pensionary benefits between pensioners of the same rank” without much ado.

The UPA government, on its part, has rejected the OROP demand, holding that it will entail huge financial costs — well over Rs 3,500 crore, with annual liabilities of around Rs 700 crore. This estimate takes into account payment of arrears with effect from January 1, 1996, the date from which the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission were effective. “It’s also not possible to implement OROP due to administrative reasons and possible repercussions from the civil side, public sector and autonomous bodies,” said a defence ministry official. [comments: These people will always cite fear about the other groups!! What prevents them to make everybody happy? when they take care of themselves!!!]

Ex-servicemen, however, beg to disagree. Tenets of justice demand that defence personnel of the same rank and length of service should get the same pension, irrespective of the retirement date, says the vice-chairman of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM), Major-General (retired) Satbir Singh, who will also return his Sena Medal on Sunday.

“But after the 6th Pay Commission, the government has created four classes within a class — pre-1996, post-1996 to December 2005, post-January 2006 to September 2008 and post-October 2008,” he said.

“For instance, a havildar who retired before 1996 draws less pension than a sepoy who retired after 2006, and a Lt-Gen draws less pension than a Lt-Col. Ex-servicemen have been on a relay hunger strike at Jantar Mantar since December 16 but nobody listens to us since we are not a votebank,” he added.

But political parties better watch out. Defence pensioners alone notch up a tally of around 20 lakh, with another 55,000 being added to it every year. If one adds family members, over one crore people in India are directly connected with defence personnel or ex-servicemen.

Maj-Gen Singh said four former chiefs — General VP Malik and Admirals Sushil Kumar, Madhvendra Singh and Arun Prakash — “had promised their support” to the rally on Sunday.

CONTINUING WOES
The ex-servicemen feel they have been hoodwinked by successive governments on one-rank, one-pay (OROP) despite virtually all political parties promising its implementation A The UPA government has rejected the OROP demand, saying it will entail well over Rs 3,500 cr, with annual liabilities of Rs 700 cr .
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