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Friday, August 3, 2012

Defence services want their representatives in govt panel


In a joint stand, the three defence services have demanded the inclusion of a representative of the armed forces in the committee formed by the government to address issues related to their pay and pension.

The committee is headed by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth and all its members are from the Indian Administrative Service. It is looking into the main demands of the services such as elevation of all lieutenant general rank officers to a higher pay grade.

The three service chiefs, including Naval Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, Indian Air Force chief N A K Browne and Army chief General Bikram Singh, have written separate letters to Defence Minister A K Antony pressing for the inclusion of a services' representative in the committee, officials said.

They have also raised the issue of absence of a services representative in the high-level committee, the officials said. The committee was formed by the prime minister on July 13 after Antony wrote a letter to him on June 25 stating there was discontentment among serving and retired soldiers over anomalies in pay and pension issues.

He also expressed his apprehension to the prime minister that if "corrective action" was not taken, the issue might take a "bad turn".

The six-member committee is expected to finalise its recommendations and submit its report to the prime minister by August 8.

For serving defence personnel, the committee is looking into the issues of placing all lieutenant general rank officers in the higher pay scale grade of Higher Administrative Group Plus and a common pay scale for serving Junior Commissioned Officers.

For the large community of ex-servicemen, the government has tasked the Committee to consider the issue of One-Rank-One-Pension, which has been the main demand of the services personnel.

A lot of them have returned their service and gallantry medals to the President in the last few years as a mark of protest.

3 comments:

  1. If these Chiefs have any shame, they should just resign. They have to choose between their men or the Politico-bureaucratic nexus. Any Chief worth his salt would have just said thank you rather than crawl like beggars. Our military leaders have no self esteem and certainly no "adarsh".
    Does anybody think that these Chiefs can win wars?

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  2. ALL CHIEF OF FORCES KINDLY LEARN LESSON FROM FIELD MARSHAL MANEKSHA & MARSHAL OF AIR ARJUN SINGH BOTH PUT FOOT DOWN NOT TO GO FAR WAR IN 1965 TILL GOVERNMENT ASSURES NO WIN LAND BE RETURNED TO ENEMY AFTER WAR.ONLY THEN ARMY WENT FOR WAR BUT WE LOST HONEST PM SHASTRI WHO NEVER CAME BACK TO FACE HUMILATION

    Saturday, August 4, 2012
    Govt. refused to include defence representative in pay panel
    The government has reportedly refused to accept the demand of the armed forces to allow military representation on the High Powered Committee, which has been formed to resolve the anomalies in the pension and benefits for the defence personne

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  3. The armed forces have again been betrayed. The service chiefs are handicapped. They cannot go beyond a certain limit of writing letters. They must now remove the self imposed constraint by not holding the party and babus to ransom. Let there be collective bargaining for all officers/ranks as also for the country. All the Chiefs must put their foot down and get what they feel is justified for their men in and out of uniform. Let the IAS/IPS shovel and grovel outside the cols cabin and no Generals or Brigs should meet babus for any of their demands. This firmness has to be ensured with the Government as well, for ensuring the security of the Country and for the welfare of the serving and retired personnel. A time to show their guts has now come.

    Ashok

    Suitably edited by host)

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