AN ESSAY IN JUSTIFICATION OF NDA-II OROP 

Dear all,

Brig vidyasagar is a personal friend and in his life as a veteran, done a lot for the veterans and veer naris.

I am a member of tsewa. Shiva will remain my personal friend, come what may, but i will carry no brief for him in matters concerning our, (Myself and over 1300 sisters, brothers & friends on our fb page), sole goal, “restoration of the lost honour and dignity of the soldier”.

bRig vidyasagar  has circulated the following letter written by him, aparently to a fellow member, in response to a letter from the latter.

I have reproduced the letter of brig vidyasagar in full with my take here and there, but have mostly left you to read and form your own opinion on the issues covered in the letter.

YOU MAY COMMUNICATE YOUR COMMENTS ON HIS LETTER TO brig vidyasagar on his e-mail id. 

samuel

C S VIDYASAGAR                                                                      NOVEMBER 25, 2015 

MY REPLY TO VETERAN MADHUSUDAN NAIR ON MEETING WITH HON’BLE FINANCE MINISTER

Dear Madhusudhan Nair Sir,

You are entitled to your views. I am not upset with your mail where in you have taken my name and ascribed something to me. I have no ambitions at my stage of life. I am only a small fry raising my voice for betterment of Ex-Servicemen especially JCOs, OR and Family pensioners. We in TSEWA are using available avenues to get justice to veterans.
I am not a supporter of BJP or NDA – II.     

My intention is NOT rpt Not to make you change your opinion. But I am sure you will read this long mail of mine with an open mind. If you do not like my mail, just throw it.

TSEWA does not take any decision based on Vidyasagar’s likes or dislikes. Unlike a gang of four or five in the so called ESM Association at JM, decision on any matter is taken by majority vote.

Pl examine the antics of one organisation which is doing tamasha at Jantar Mantar and collecting huge funds without giving account of how much they have collected and what are they doing with that.

They state that they will put up their accounts in their AGM. If they have nothing to hide why are they so shy of showing their accounts? They have to hide because they spend the money for travel by air, have press conferences in star hotels, humour press walas with big gifts, travel by Executive Class by Shatabdi and Rajdhani (fares are equal to air fares). They want to be in front of TV Cameras all the time. 

I have been with them for some time and I know pretty well how they function. It is a secret society where all decisions are taken by gang of five. Anyway let them do what they want with their money collected from veterans.

Let me come to points one by one.

I am sure you must have read Bhagat Singh Koshiyari committee report. They do admit that gap in pensions between past pensioners and present pensioner is too wide and needs to be bridged.

Can you, Sir, show me one para where the Committee said pension equalisation has to be done every year? Pension equalisation can be done once in 10 years or once in 5 years or even once in one year.

If all the past Govts did only show lip symapthy for OROP. Even present H.E President as Finance Minister and Chairman of Gp of Ministers ruled out OROP as not administratively, judicially and financially possible. Atleast NDA – II did give us OROP in some form by equalising our pensions once in five years. What would have we done had the Govt ignored us like previous Govts?

Pension Equalisation. I also would be happy if pensions are equalised every year. I have done calculations and can prove to anyone that pensions need to be equalised only once in three years as gap in pensions between past and present pensioners become a bit wide if it is beyond three years. If OROP has to be implemented every year as many of us are demanding can you imagine sir, what is the work load involved in generating Corr PPOs for 30 lakh pensioners every year? PCDA(Pensions) Allahabad and other CDAs have to print six copies of Corr PPOs. Who will feed data of 30 lakh pensioners into software?

Can you imagine how much staff is required to do this job? Software can give you result provided data is fed into it. New software needs different fields and data entry operators have to physically feed data into software. How many staff are required to feed the data? Many veterans die and many new pensioners join.

So every year data entry has to be done in such a manner some pensioners have to be taken off and 65000 have to be added every year. Six copies are required to be printed. So how much time is required to generate 1.80 lakh Corr PPOs and how much money is spent on despatching to five organisations including the pensioner? The increase in pension for Sepoy is not more than Rs 50 per month and do you want Govt of India to spend Rs 63 crores per annum (Rs 7 per Corr PPO x 1.80 lakhs x 5 recipients) to print and despatch Corr PPOs for 30 lakh pensioners.

I do admit :

What NDA – II gave is not OROP but one time increase (OTI). I feel it is better than nothing. Many NCOs and family pensioners are going to be benefitted by this. Many keep saying Definition of OROP. There is, Sir, no definition but only explanation of OROP. Pension equalisation is the crux of the issue. Now periodicity can be debated. Should it be every year or once in three years or once in five years is what can be argued about.

Base Year.

Calendar year 2013 has been taken as base year to fix pensions. If pensions are taken at Jul 2013 then it does not matter whether it is Jul 2013 or Jun 2014. If pension arrears are to be calculated from Jul 2014, then automatically pension fixation or equalisation has to be done w.e.f Jul 2014. This point can be projected to Single Man Judicial Commission for adjudication. More about this later.

Averaging of Maximum and Minimum Pensions. Even hon’ble Supreme Court in Maj Gen SPS Vains Vs UOI case, MO Inasu case upheld argument that pensions earned by past pensioners depending upon length of service(hence number of increments earned) has to be taken into consideration. Even AFT Chandigarh while upholding argument of 53 Maj Gens ruled that pension has to be fixed considering the number of increments earned by the past pensioners in his last rank as on Jan 2006. That is how some Maj Gens are being enhanced pensions to Rs 36,000 pm without DR and some are being paid Rs 32,000 compared to their minimum of Rs 30,350 as per the minimum of the fitment table of SAI 2/S/2008. Even 7th CPC has recommended weightage to be given to increments earned. That is why the averaging of Maximum and minimum comes into play.

Well how can one argue every one putting the same length of total service to be given the pension of a person when pensioners have different length of service in the last rank?

Those who served for longest period in the last rank get higher last drawn emoluments. It is so simple as that.

(Samuel’s take : The SC has already ruled, in a case, involving civilians, that anyone who has put in 20 years service is entitled to full pension of 33 years!!!)

For example a pre – 2006 Colonel with rank weightage (still in vogue) of seven years has to put in 26 years to get full pension of Rs 27,795 without DR. Another Colonel who serves for 34 years (54 age for super annuation– 20 age at commissioning) and earns may be 12 to 14 increments. Can this Col with such a long service of 34 years be treated at par with Col who serviced for just 26 years? But unfortunately that is happening today. A Colonel with 12 to 14 increments is in top of the scale and Col with 26 years’ service also get the same Rs 27,795. No benefit is given to Col with 34 years service for his 12 to 14 increments.

Consider another case. In some Corps, officers and even JCOs & NCOs do get their promotions faster. They serve for longer period in their last rank while others from other Corps /Regts serve for lesser number of years in the last rank though both may put in same total service i. e. Say 30 years. Even for pre- 2006 pensioners the one with longer service in last rank got higher last drawn emoluments and higher pension than the one with lesser number of years in the last rank. His last drawn emoluments are less and hence his pension is less till Dec 2005. So to give benefit for longer service in the last rank, this averaging comes into play. I cannot understand the argument when I and my Inf coursemate though put in 32 years’ service get same pension when my inf coursemate was Brig for six years where as I was only in my last rank for just 2 years and 7 months. Is it fair on my part to demand same pension of my course mate who put in 6 years’ service in the rank of Brig and who might have suffered more than me in that rank?

Single Man Judicial Commission. He is a retired Surpeme Court judge. He neither belongs to Govt of India nor to veterans. He is an independent authority who will listen to views of both the parties and submits his report to the Govt of India six months from the day it is constituted.

(Samuel’s take: The independence of the judiciary, leave alone that of the retired judges is legendary. History of independent India is replete with such one man commissions. Retired CJI, P Sathasivam’s acceptance of the post of Governor of Kerala four months after he retired as Chief Justice of India is widely seen as inappropriate and as an act that could compromise the independence of the judiciary).

The demand of TV loving ESM Association is it should be composed of five and three of them are to be veterans. How can a prosecutor be jury and judge? How can this commission be dominated by veterans? Is there any logic in this demand?. On top of that the demand that report should be submitted in 15 days is just not understood. It is nothing but foolishness on the part of people who never dealt with Govt of India. In 15 days the Committee will not be allotted even space to function leave alone other administrative arrangements required to conduct adjudication.

TSEWA as per the majority view, (Samuel : Was there an Special AGM on the issue), is that though OROP is not given as demanded but we are satisfied with whatever the Govt of India has given under present economic conditions.

(Samuel’s take : The UPA – II battled  a World wide recession from 2008, which the rest  of the world is still battling, with crude shooting through the roof @ US$120/barrel. As against that the World economic situation is much better, exports have picked up and the crude import bill has been slashed by around US$ 80 billion).

We believe that we should gracefully accept whatever we get and later project our grievances to Single Man Judicial Commission or Committee.

If we do not get justice then we have courts of law available to get justice.

Has not 7th CPC recommended OROP to all Central Govt employees who retire at the age of 60 years? 

Justice AK Mathur being a retired Supreme Court judge and Member (Judicial) in AFT Delhi Principal bench recommended OROP to all because that is the law of land. Please read judgment of hon’ble Suprem Court in Maj Gen SPS Vains Vs UOI 2008.

You may call me Jaichand and I do not mind it. (I leave it to the judgment of the reader----- Samuel) In this free country everyone has right to express his or her opinions freely and frankly. I do not expect you to agree to my points of view.
Regards,
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd)

csvidyasagar@gmail.com 
9493191380