On
18th July 2012, the three service chiefs, led by Admiral Nirmal Verma,
Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) met with a high-powered
Committee of Secretaries constituted by the Prime Minister to resolve
anomalies in the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission award for
the Armed Forces.
Although
a total of 39 anomalies have been identified by the three services
since 2008, they have decided to concentrate on some core issues that
directly affect both serving and retired armed forces personnel.
The issues are:
Fixing common pay scales for all JCOs and ORs
- Grant of NFU (non-functional upgradation) status to commissioned officers
- Correcting difference in rank pay of commissioned officers
- Extending the HAG+ (Higher administrative Grade Plus) scale to all three star officers
- Granting One-Rank-One-Pension to retired personnel
There have been strong demands from ex-servicemen and from acting
servicemen for One-Rank-One-Pay. And to push for their demands further,
the three Service chiefs, led by Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff
Committee, Naval chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, along with his colleagues,
Chief of Air Staff ACM, NAK Browne and Army Chief General Bikram Singh
gave a detailed presentation to the Committee of Secretaries on
Wednesday.
The
six-member committee, comprising the Cabinet Secretary with the Defence
Secretary, Secretary Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Secretary DoPT, Expenditure
Secretary and Principal Secretary to PM, as members was set up by the
Prime Minister after a Rajya Sabha panel last year recommended granting
One Rank One Pension to the retired defence personnel. The government
has asked the committee to submit its report by August 8.
There is a buzz in the corridors of power that the Prime Minister wants to make a grand announcement from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15 and therefore the deadline of August 8!
For
the uninitiated, the One-Rank-One-Pay scheme implies that uniform
pension be paid to the armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank
with the same length of service irrespective of their date of
retirement, and any future enhancement in the rates of pension be
automatically passed on to past pensioners.
But the issue that has upset and angered serving defence personnel is NFU.
For those not in uniform it needs a bit of an explanation.
Buckling under pressure from Group
A organised Services under the Central Government like Border Roads
Organisation, Military Engineering Services, Postal Services, the Sixth
Pay Commission gave them a special concession.
It
allowed the officers in these services to be placed in a grade pay
scale equivalent to an IAS officer two years behind that particular IAS
batch. For example if the 1992 batch of the IAS officer got placed in
the Joint Secretary grade in 2012, all Group A organised officers of the
1990 batch would automatically get the pay and allowance equivalent to
the 1992 IAS batch, irrespective of the post and place they are serving
in. That is the upgradation will be done on a ‘non-functional’ basis.
This
has brought in huge functional problems in day-to-day affairs when
military officers have to work in close coordination with MES Civil
Officers, BRO Civil Officers, IPS Officers in BSF, CRPF, ITBP, Defence
Accts (IDAS), Test Audit (IA&AS), Ordnance Factory Board etc, with
whom Defence forces officers interact regularly, will now get the salary
and grade pay of Joint Secretary/Major General (Grade Pay Rs. 10000/-)
after 22 years of service, and will draw the pay of Additional Secretary
to Government of India which is equal to a Lieutenant General (Grade
Pay Rs. 12000/-) in 32 years of service whereas military officers senior
to them in rank and service will get less grade pay at the same level
of service thereby creating a functional disparity giving rise to
insubordination and subtle non-compliance.
Military
officials have pointed out that this has adversely affected
organisational command and control in multi-cadre environment. It also
led to lowering the status of Armed Forces Officials vis-a-vis organized
Group A officers and IPS Officers. Organized Group A and IPS Officers
reach HAG (Higher Administrative Grade) Scale at 32 years while only 0.2
per cent of Armed Forces Officers can ever reach that level.
With over 97 per cent Armed Forces Officers retiring in the Grade Pay of 8700, their exclusion from the
NFU is seen as grossly unfair. This differential not only disturbs
financial parity, it pushes down the Defence services in status as even
direct recruit officers of Group B services attain a better pay and
promotional avenue and manage to reach the level of Joint
Secretary/Major General before retiring.
Both the OROP and granting the NFU status to Armed Forces officials is not going to be expensive either.
According
to calculations done by the military, the annual outgo for granting One
-Rank-One-Pension to the approximately 21 lakh ex-servicemen would not
be more than Rs. 1300 crore. Similarly the NFU status, if granted, will
cost the exchequer a mere Rs. 70 crore annually but will go a long way
in restoring the pride and status of the armed forces’ officers.
The other core issues are minor in comparison but important nevertheless.
