NEW DELHI, Feb 17:
After Rahul Gandhi’s push, the government today accepted the long-standing demand of ex-servicemen for ‘one-rank, one-pension’ and allocated Rs 500 crore for the fund, a decision that is expected to benefit around 30 lakh retired personnel of the Armed forces.
However, the armed forces were not sure whether the amount would be sufficient to fully implement the scheme that will come into effect from 2014-15 as they feel the requirement would be nearly five times the amount.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, while presenting the Vote-on-Account in the Lok Sabha, said, “I am happy to announce that the government has accepted the principle of ‘one-rank, one-pension’ for the Defence forces. This decision will be implemented prospectively from the financial year 2014-15.”
The requirement for 2014-15 is estimated at Rs 500 crore and “as an earnest of the UPA government’s commitment, I propose to transfer a sum of Rs 500 crore to the Defence Pension Account in the current financial year itself.”
The announcement, which is likely to benefit around 3 million defence pensioners, comes days after Rahul Gandhi assured a delegation of ex-servicemen that he supported their demand and would do “all that I can to see that your demands are met”.
Chidambaram said the two UPA governments had made changes in the pension rules for defence services on three occasions but some gaps remained in the ranks of ‘Sepoy’ and ‘Naik’ among non-officers and ‘Major’ and above among officers.
“We need a young fighting force, we need young jawans and we need young officers. We also need to take care of those who served in the defence forces only for a limited numbers of years. The Government has therefore decided to walk the last mile and closed the gap for all retirees in all ranks,” he announced.
Rahul hailed as “historic” the decision on the ‘one-rank, one-pension’ demand.
“A number of delegations have met me on the one-rank, one-pensions (issue) in last many days. All of them said it is a very necessary and historic step. Our forces are always ready to fight for the nation and people…It is our duty that we provide them all support,” he told reporters.
“I thank the governmment, the Prime Minister and the Congress President for taking this historic step. Our government is fully behind them. They always stand behind the nation,” he said.
Defence Minister A K Antony also welcomed the decision, saying it is a “great” day for ex-servicemen.
He said the decision shows the government is not only concerned about modernisation but also the “happiness” of the forces. “We will continue to do that.”
However, some senior Army officers expressed skepticism over the extent of the scheme’s roll-out, saying Rs 500 crore may not be enough to implement it fully as the total cost could be somewhere around Rs 2,500 crore.
“It could again be a case of modified parity than actual parity. The outlay of Rs 500 cr seems to be on shorter side,” an officer said.
Earlier, the Expenditure Secretary had projected the requirement at over Rs 1,800 cr in his depositions to a Rajya Sabha committee in 2012.
At the same time, a Defence Ministry official said the announcement reflected government’s categorical statement about implementing the decision.
“The entire contours of the scheme and its implementation will be worked out in the coming weeks,” he said. (PTI)
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