Dear Veteran Friends,
Lt Gen SK Bahri (Retd)
I am writing this letter
on behalf of over 30 Ex Servicemens Organisations which have been
watching the present Government playing games with them. The ESM orgs are
convinced that the political setup is completely controlled by the bureaucracy,
which is only looking after its own interests while disregarding the interests
of the nation. Instant evidence of this is the Prime Minister asking the
Committee Of Secretaries to sort out the anomalies by 8 Aug 12 on an issue on
which a number of all party Defence Consultative Committees, including the
latest Koshiyary Petition Committee have already given the recommendations,
favouring the defence personnel. Does the govt ever refer the recommendations
of the PAC or the JPC to a Committee of Secretaries? It seems the ministers in
the govt are so petrified of the bureaucrats that they dare not tamper with
their self declared status.
The idea of making an alliance of all ESM
Organisations has been mooted and in this connection Lt Gen SK Bahri (Retd) has been nominated as a
convenor. As a consequence of which he has taken a very prompt action and has
sent out a letter along with a draft letter seeking views and suggestions of
one and all, and especially from the number of ESM organisations already in existence
at all India level.
It is appealed to all the concerned readers to forward their views
directly to Lt Gen SK Bahri
(Retd), whose email Contact Nos and
Residential addresses are given below.
Col LK Anand Retd
Letter
from Lt
Gen SK Bahri (Retd),
Dear Veterans,
I had been asked
by some people to form an alliance of ESM orgs in such a way that each one
while carrying out its programme for the welfare of its members, a joint front
faces the Govt as a cohesive body to be reckoned with. Considering the diverse
location of our organisations, it is well nigh impossible to have consultations
before any initiative is thought of. The new body, on paper, is being
christened "Alliance Of Ex
Servicemen Organisations."
I believe
the only way we can work together is to let any one rep of an organisation
proposes a letter or document which should be floated to the Govt. This
letter/docu be circulated by email and all orgs give their inputs so that the
initiator could incorporate them, if considered appropriate.
I have started the
ball rolling by enclosing the att letter for approval of the member orgs. Pl
give your views on it by 20 Sep so that the letter remains relevant..
Remember to be effective the letter should not be too long.
If you wish your
letters, once they are finalised, to be sent to the relevant authority they can
be signed by Maj Gen Satbir or me. It will be convenient as we both are in
Gurgaon and secondly, we do not expose every one. We two are already known
devils to the govt so we can be the face of the Alliance. Pl give your views on
this aspect also. Remember it is this constant and persistent prodding and
pushing that can possibly shame the govt in taking some sensible action.
Lt Gen SK Bahri (Retd)
A3/502 World Spa East
Sector 30/41
Gurgaon 122001
Tele 0124 4143180/181
Mob +91 981000 2800
The draft
letter from the Convenor
Lt Gen SK Bahri (Retd)
Alliance Of Ex Servicemen
Organisations
I am writing this letter
on behalf of over 30 Ex Servicemens Organisations which have been
watching the present Government playing games with them. The ESM orgs are
convinced that the political setup is completely controlled by the bureaucracy,
which is only looking after its own interests while disregarding the interests
of the nation. Instant evidence of this is the Prime Minister asking the
Committee Of Secretaries to sort out the anomalies by 8 Aug 12 on an issue on
which a number of all party Defence Consultative Committees, including the
latest Koshiyary Petition Committee have already given the recommendations,
favouring the defence personnel. Does the govt ever refer the recommendations
of the PAC or the JPC to a Committee of Secretaries? It seems the ministers in
the govt are so petrified of the bureaucrats that they dare not tamper with
their self declared status.
Mr Minister, the
Services have seen the likes of these Committees
of Secretaries before. The Ajit
Kumar Committee was also constituted after the 5th Pay
Commission to sort similar problems and delivered zero after 4 years. The
recent Committee ordered by the PM has not bothered to give its findings
by the target date of 8 Aug 12, as was mentioned in the media. Is anyone going
to be made accountable for the delay?
We know that the Major General’s rank
pay case was also deliberately delayed for nearly 20 years because of
bureaucratic cussedness.
We have already seen the
callous delays caused in implementation of Supreme Court orders with regard to
the rank pay due to Officers upto the rank of Brigadier. But the bureaucracy
had its pound of flesh by ensuring through the Attorney General, in that
Officers were denied interest on their dues for a period of over 10 years.
Reinforcing the widely held view that the govt is broke! The fact that the
affected officers were legally entitled to their rank pay arrears has been
settled by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, without an iota of doubt. Surely, the
Govt is not going to be any richer by denying the Officers this paltry amount?
Is this an example of miserliness being displayed by the Finance Minister? Or,
is it the usual nastiness, meanness or cunning for which the bureaucracy is
famous? Imagine what the present value of a rupee is from the date it became
due. And how many of the entitled Officers have died in the intervening period
of over two decades, denying their families an extra penny and without enjoying
the benefits of additional funds, legitimately due to them? To prove its bonafides the Govt should
not only sanction interest for the entire period but also bring to book the
bureaucrats who deliberately denied Service Officers entitlements which
were their right.
I would also request the Defence Minister
to go into the delay in implementation of Armed Forces Tribunals judgements.
Why is it that any judgement in favour of ex servicemen is always blocked by
dilatory tactics of the MOD and The Dept Of Ex Servicemen Welfare(Really!)? I
wrote to the Union Minister of Law and Justice a number of times that while the
Courts, Tribunals and Supreme Court have ruled favourably on the law portion of
the cases but we are still being denied JUSTICE! But to no avail.
DO NOT VOTE FOR PRESENT GOVT TILL
IT REDRESSES VETERANS GRIEVANCES BY 28 FEB 2013
Mr AK Antony
Honble Minister Of Defence
Ministry Of Defence
DHQ PO
New Delhi 110011
CC
Mr PC Chidambaram
Hon’ble Minister Of Finance
Ministry Of Finance
North Block
New Delhi 110011
Mr Salman Khurshid
Hon’ble Minister Of Law & Justice
402, A Wing, Shastri Bhawan
New Delhi 110001
Well said, we should have made the decision to be on same platform long back.
ReplyDeletethomasmanimala@gmail.com
DUM NAHI HAI
ReplyDeleteDEAR GEN,
ReplyDeleteDO YOU KNOW ,YOUR PENSION WAS TO BE RESTORED IN 13 YEARS.YOU ARE IN DARK ,COURT HAS GIVEN JUDGEMENT, BUT IMPLEMENTATION LETTER IN 36 YEARS NOT ISSUED,DUE TO POOR WELFARE CONCERNS BY GENERALS AT ALL LEVEL INC ARMY HQ COAS. SO ALL WILL SUFFER INCL THEM'YOU SHOW ME ,YOUR ACTION IN THIS REGARD. I HAVE PROGRESSED CASE WITH MOD/AHQ/PM & COURT. LETS ADD YOUR STRENGTH.
PETITIONER:
UNION OF INDIA DATE OF JUDGMENT09/12/1986
BENCH: MISRA RANGNATH
BENCH: In petitions under Article 32, the petitioners haveasked for striking down certain provisions of the said Rulesas they permit the Union to recover more than what is paid
to the pensioners upon commutation and for a direction that
an appropriate scheme rationalising the provisions relating
to commutation be brought into force because there has been
a substantial improvement in the life expectancy of the
people, and since commutation portion out of the pension is
ordinarily recovered within about 12 years, there is no
justification for fixing the period at 15 years. benefit
agreed to be extended in respect of the commuted portion of
the pension should be effective from 1.4.1985
DEAR GEN,
ReplyDeleteDO YOU KNOW ,YOUR PENSION WAS TO BE RESTORED IN 13 YEARS.YOU ARE IN DARK ,COURT HAS GIVEN JUDGEMENT, BUT IMPLEMENTATION LETTER IN 36 YEARS NOT ISSUED,DUE TO POOR WELFARE CONCERNS BY GENERALS AT ALL LEVEL INC ARMY HQ COAS. SO ALL WILL SUFFER INCL THEM'YOU SHOW ME ,YOUR ACTION IN THIS REGARD. I HAVE PROGRESSED CASE WITH MOD/AHQ/PM & COURT. LETS ADD YOUR STRENGTH.
JUDGEMENTPETITIONER:
"COMMON CAUSE" A REGISTERED SOCIETY AND OTHERS
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
UNION OF INDIA
DATE OF JUDGMENT09/12/1986
BENCH:
MISRA RANGNATH
BENCH:
MISRA RANGNATH
BHAGWATI, P.N. (CJ)
CITATION:
1987 AIR 210 1987 SCR (1) 497
1987 SCC (1) 142 JT 1986 991
1More than 50% of the Defence personnel belong to the
lowest rank and about 81% in all retire early. The weightage
factor relied upon by the respondent to treat the Defence
personnel differently is not a tenable feature. The Defence
personnel are a class by themselves. In their case, retirement takes effect in certain classes as justified 986 SCALE (2)974.The petitioners have contended that the commuted portion
out of the pension is ordinarily recovered within about 12
years and, therefore, there is no justification for fixing
the period at 15 years.We direct the respondent--Government to give effect to
this order within a period of three months from now.
We place on record our appreciation of the consideration shown
by the Union of India to ameliorate the hardship of the
pensioners. There will be no order as to the costs.
Dear Gen Bahri,
ReplyDeleteI take the risk of writing to all so that we are all on the same page.
It is a good idea to get all the bickering veterans together so that we can put up a united front. This should include all ranks because just solving the problems of Generals only is not going to get us anywhere. The journey is long and the problems too many, though not insurmountable. There have been many articles lately on the “Human Resources” part of our Armed Forces. Those by, Sudhir Vombatkere, Mrinal Suman and Sailesh Ranade were particularly hard hitting. Time for a wake up call.
There should be, I feel, some ground rules:
a) Let us make a list of issues that need to be addressed.This can be discussed on emails or through some blog.
b) It is agreed that only one or two people should sign these letters addressed to the government.
c) We should also nominate people who can be our spokespersons to mass media. Only then we will be able to get one view point. Let the Convener have a list of Officers / Others who can represent us.
d) Letters should be addressed to only government authorities like the PM, RM and the Service Chiefs. Do not ridicule us by writing to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Baba Ramdev etc. They mean nothing to us and in any case know nothing about us.
e) Keep out the tainted. These people have shamed us. They have no place among the veteran community.
f) Please identify the “Mata Haris” amongst us. There are some who will be happy to pull this movement down for some obvious monetary, political or selfish gains.
g) We should endeavour to be the moral force. Since there is no Army/Navy Air Force Act to bind us, we should take up issues that denigrate the Services with the Chiefs. This obviously cannot be done by serving officers.
h) Our goal is to whittle down this list of 30 organisations to JUST ONE.
i) In the midst of all this where is Gen VKS? Why can’t he assume some leadership role?
My thanks to General Bahri for opening up this discussion.
Regards,
Subash
Subash Verma
subashvermavet@gmail.com
An appeal to all Military Veterans to extend their support to the
ReplyDeleteChairman, Alliance of Ex-Servicemen Organisations
Respected Veterans,
Jai Hind.
I appeal to you all not to chase mirages. A typical example, is to say, ‘Let us dissolve all existing ESM organisations; and go in for a new Org which would represent all ESM; spk in one voice and present a United Front’. A very good thought per se; but just NOT practicable. I mean no offence to anyone. Given Military Veterans’ innate penchant for concentrating all powers in themselves, when heading an ESM org; the question of anyone agreeing to dissolve their org, just does NOT arise.
I wish to most humbly submit that Lt Gen SK Bahri, Ex-MGO, 1st Course JSW (Dec 1952 commissioned) is a venerable sage. I have known Gen Bahri and interacted with him for the past four years; and he is passionately devoted to the Cause – to improve the lot of Ex-Servicemen.
Gen Bahri is a member of both IESL and IESM; but ignored by both IESL and IESM, for fear, that he would steal their thunder. A large number of the ESM org having realized that they have become moribund & irrelevant, have either individually or collectively approached Lt Gen SK Bahri to head an Alliance of various ESM Org to present a United Front, when taking up cases with the Govt. or Service HQs.
I appreciate Veterans heading various ESM org for their initiative; for, wisdom seems to have dawned on them that it is better to fight battles unitedly and present a bigger frontage; than to go it alone. Better late, than never. Given Gen Bahri’s commitment to the Cause and his stature, I too, on behalf of Military Veterans (India) have requested him to head the Alliance of ESM org, as its Chairman. And I have also requested Gen Bahri, that as Chairman, he be the single point projection of our woes & problems to the Govt. for amelioration of the same. I am glad to say that Gen SK Bahri has most graciously consented to be the Chairman of the Alliance of ESM Organisations.
In the light of above, I most earnestly request you all, to please consider lending your support and convey the same to Gen SK Bahri; and thus strengthen the Alliance.
I consider OROP as only one of the issues; for there are many many more issues that concern welfare & resettlement of Ex-Servicemen, which merit serious consideration and projection to the Govt. for their amelioration. Your putting your weight behind Gen Bahri would be a great morale booster to the Cause.
Regards,
Col Shaitan Singh Rajan of Jikargacha