National Body for ESM forgotten? Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

National Body for ESM forgotten?

Promises to ESM 18 months ago Wed, Jul 30, 2008 :TO SOOTHE
the frayed nerves of Indian defence personnel, both serving and
retired, not happy with the emoluments offered by the Sixth Pay
Commission, the government is mooting a national commission
for welfare of ex-servicemen. The proposed body will speed up
the issue relating to rehabilitation, welfare and grievances of
retired soldiers, martyrs and their families. Every year nearly
sixty thousand personnel retire from the armed forces and they
are in the productive middle age group. In addition, the country
has 14 lakh ex-servicemen and over 2.5 lakh widows along with
the dependent family members. Speaking at the annual conclave
of Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR) on Wednesday,
Deepa Jain Singh, secretary, ex-servicemen welfare in the
ministry of defence, said that capsule on welfare of
ex-servicemen will beincorporated as subject at the Lal Bahadur
Shastri Academy, Mussourie. It will sensitise the young IAS
probationers of the vitalissues related to ex-servicemen before
they assume importantresponsibilities, she added. Pertinent
to mention that the government created the post of secretary
in defence ministry to deal exclusively with issues related to
the ex-serviceman, who arein huge numbers in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, the additional secretary Neelam
Nath asked the secretaries of the District Sainik Boards to
hold meetings at least once every monthwith the district
collectors to resolve grievances of ex-servicemen at the
grassroots level. She said the DGR is about to complete a
countrywide database of ex-servicemen at the Zila Sainik
Board, Rajya Sainik Board and Kendriya Sainik Board level
that would go a long way in formulating macro and micro
policy for ex-servicemen welfare.The director-general,
Resettlement, Major General SG Chatterji said his office
would serve as a nodal single point interface between the
retiring and retired service personnel, widows and their
dependents and the outside agencies for all issues related
to resettlement and welfare measures.
Govt moots national body for ex-servicemen welfare
Posted by SIGNAL on Saturday, February 20, 2010 Links to this post

Disabily benefits for pre-2006 pensioners-Tribune News Service:Veteran Prabhjot Sinngh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Disability benefits for pre-1996 pensioners
Vijay Mohan:Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 31.Following recommendations of the
Committeeof Secretaries, the government has partially modified
regulations fordisability pension and extended benefit of broad-
banding of disability percentage to those invalided out of service
prior to January 1996.
The cap on war injury pension, restricting the same to the
maximum of last drawn emoluments for personnel invalided
out in Category ‘E’, alsostands removed. The orders to this
effect were issued by the Ministry of Defence on January 19 after
financial sanction for the same was accorded earlier this month.
The benefits of broad-banding of disability percentage and
removing the cap on war injury pension were recommended by
the Sixth Pay Commission.
These were, however, extended only to those invalided out of
service in1996 or after, thereby putting similarly placed persons
left service earlierat a disadvantage.
While the partial modification has been welcomed by veterans
as a positive development, some officers and legal experts point
out that the benefits have been extended only to those
individuals, who were invalided out of service and not to those
who retired on completion of their terms of engagement.
In the case, Paramjit Singh Vs Union of India, the Punjab and
Haryana High Court, has already held this disparity to be
arbitrary.
Regulations now themselves provide that for the purposes of
disability pension, persons placed in low medical category at
the time of retirement are deemed to be invalided out of service.
The different treatment between invalided and
superannuating personnel, according to lawyers dealing in the
pensionary matters, seems strange in view of the fact that
broad-banding or rounding-off disability percentage was
introduced to curb medical subjectivity because it was felt that
different medical boards were providing different percentages
of disability for similar ailments.

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.

Mail recived from a veteran regarding wellfare of Veterans or widows: Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Dear Veterans,
Regrads. Find below a mail from a veteran depicting his concern
for the welfare of veterans or widows.
Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.
Mob:9855-09128 Tele-fax: 0175 -5000896.

As the wait for the Govt. Orders after COS report acceptanceis
still continue and unlikely to be over in this Year 2009.Till
now Various Govts. by appointing enormous Committees
had unwillingly tried to sought out the just genuine and
legal demand ofsame pension for the same Rank and equal
length of service (I would not call this OROP).The finding
of these committees always concluding on Two importantwords;
i;e ..... Not feasible ADMINISTRATIVELY & FINANCIALLY.
The first 'word' is quite manageable as there seems to be
absolutely no problem from any quarters if any Govt.
implementing the above in letter and spirit.The second
word is the Most culprit word i say as regards to us (EXSM)
and the most suitable word for any committee to use for
outrightly rejecting without any solution.The INDIA is
poised to be Economic superpower in next 15-20 years
and we think that this second word will also become
manageable then.But I was stunned after came to know
the other side of the story." On 17 Dec 2009 (Thursday)
our respected MOS for Planning and Parliamentary affairs
Mr. V. Narayanasamy told the Rajya Sabha thatat least
327 of the 598 central govt-sponsored projects have been
delayed, resulting in an Additional Burden of Rs. 54717
CRORE to the exchequer."Not to blame anyone for this
above additional burden (as there may be multiple issues
involved) but this could have been reduced to some extent
by Proper Planning and by proper Monitoring.Lastly this
is not the isolated case, there will be/(there are)so many
areas where we all can reduce this burden significantly
by Proper Planning/Monitoring/by making best use of
Public Money (at least in those projects/areas where no
issues involved like rehabilitation/legal).Hope somebody
will take pain to atleast go through this above.Best regards