Disability pensions for invalidated defence personnel 'untouched': Sources

Following the Congress' assertion, based on a report that the Centre has halved the 'disability pensions' for the armed forces, sources now state that according to the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, pensions for personnel who have been invalidated have not been touched.

Citing dramatised reports in the media which describe how the pensions of army personnel who participated in the surgical strike get cut drastically if they have got severely injured during a surgical strike, the sources clarified that the disability pension for non-battle cases has increased for the majority of the personnel.

In 2015, a total of 62,311 armed forces personnel retired. Of these, 60,662 were personnel below officer rank (PBOR) & junior commissioned officers (JCO) and 1649 were commissioned officers. Naiks and Havildars constitute the maximum proportion of the armed forces. 24035 Naiks and 23124 Havildars retired in 2015.

The government has accepted the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission to ensure an increase in disability pensions for majority of the personnel. The resolution related to the 7th Pay Commission recommendations has been passed. The details and the actual order are yet to be issued, sources added.

It is also to be noted that the increase in disability pensions ranges from around 14 per cent to 30 per cent among the PBORs/JCOs, in fact, the disability pension of almost 90 per cent of the armed forces personnel has been significantly increased.

Also, the disability pension for sepoys has increased from Rs 9282 to Rs 12,000, for Havildar from Rs 10,542 to Rs 12,000 and for Naik has increased from Rs 9680 to Rs 12000.

This comes after the Congress quoted a news report showing the Centre notifying a new set of rules for disability pensions for the armed forces.

"On one side there is a race to gain political mileage out of surgical strikes, while on the other, doing injustice to the jawans. What sort of justice is this?," the party's chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, said.

Asserting that the suggestions given by the three service chiefs on the One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue were dismissed by the government, he criticised the one-rank-one-pension being converted into one-rank-different pension and called on the Centre to rectify the cavity in the OROP issue.