Medical Benefits Key file missing,MoD blames DGAFMS:Veteran Prabhjot Singh PLS Retd

Dear Veterans,
Regards. Find below a startling fact and ponder over it .We request
the Govt.to dig the matter to a logical end and provide the medical
facility to all non-pensioner veterans.

Veteran Prabhjopt Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.
President,
Indian Ex-Services League Punjab 7 Chandigarh.
Mob.098554-09128

Medical BenefitsKey file missing, MoD blames DGAFMS :
Vijay Mohan-Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 30:Even as former short service commissioned
(SSC) officers continue to be hassled over availing treatment at military
hospitals, the Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services
(DGAFMS) has claimed that the Defence Ministry’s file containing
relevant orders issued by the President has been “lost”.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD), in response to a query under the RTI
Act, has held the DGAFMS responsible for the loss, as it was the
custodian of the file.
Earlier, the DGAFMS had responded to queries by ex-servicemen by
claiming that the file was with the MoD. When the Ministry wrote to
the DGAFMS pointing out that the file was with it, medical directorate
then claimed that it was lost.
In 1996, the government had extended outdoor medical facilities in
military hospitals to all “ex-servicemen”. These were earlier available
only to “ex-service pensioners” and the relevant clause introduced in
1983 was amended after the presidential sanction was accorded for
the same.
Letters on the subject were later issued by the Adjutant General’s branch, explicitly including emergency commissioned and SSC officers under the
ambit of military medical facilities. Requests by the Director General
Medical Services (Army) to rescind these medical facilities were also
turned down by the MoD in 1997 and 1998.
Last year, the DGAFMS suo-moto started refusing medical care to
elderly veterans on the pretext that they were not entitled to the]
facility. The DGAFMS also claimed that its concurrence was not
taken before granting facilities to non-pensioner ex-servicemen.
The DGMS (Army) even wrote to all Army Commands asking them
not to comply with letters of the MOD and the Army Headquarters.
Irked by the conduct of the DGAFMS, many ex-servicemen sought
a copy of the file notings leading to the Presidential sanction in
which the complete concurrence of the then DGAFMS was taken.
The DGAFMS, thereafter, took the pretext that the said file was lost.