NEW DELHI: Just a day after the
Army’s surgical strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the Centre notified changes to the disability pensions paid to military personnel. The move, which was a recommendation of the
Seventh Pay Commission, will see a significant slash in the
disability pension
across ranks. However, the government also notified a more than doubling of the lump sum compensation to personnel who have been invalidated for further service by injuries.
The move is a roll back of the government’s 2006 decision to link the disability pension to the last-drawn salary, instead of the fixed-rate slabs that had been in place till then. The new notification, issued by the
Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare
of the
Ministry of Defence
on September 30, takes the disability pension back to the slab system.
The disability pensions for 100 percent disability will now be fixed at Rs 27,000 for officers and honorary officers, Rs 17,000 for Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Rs 12,000 for soldiers up to the rank of Havildar and its other service equivalents.
The revised provisions would be implemented retrospectively from the beginning of 2016.
However, the government also notified the Seventh Pay Commission recommendation to increase the ex-gratia lump sum compensation to defence personnel invalidated for further service by 100 percent disability. The compensation amount would be more than doubled, rising from the present Rs 9 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.
The Congress had raised the issue at a news conference where the reference was drowned out in the controversy over the ‘dalali’ remarks made by party vice president Rahul Gandhi. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had hit out at the government saying it had asked if this was how the government stands with military personnel.