Government to introduce three slabs for disability pension

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the government will introduce three slabs of disability pension covering different categories of disability.

Addressing an ex-servicemen rally here, the Prime Minister said many retired soldiers complained to him about confusion around determining the percentage of disability, for which they had to run around hospitals.

"They faced lot of problems because of this confusion," Modi said referring to the process of determining percentage of disability.

According to the existing system, disability pension is given in terms of percentage of salary, based on the percentage of disability determined by doctors.

The Prime Minister said three slabs will be created -- for disability upto 50 per cent, disability between 50 to 75 per cent, and that above 75 per cent -- to determine disability pensions.

The 7th Pay Commission recommended a slab based system for disability pension for forces instead of the existing percentage based system. This has been opposed by the forces and retired soldiers as well. The percentage based system on the contrary has been continued for civilian government employees.

The issue was at the centre of a debate after the Defence Ministry recently uploaded a draft notification related to it on its website.

It was later clarified by the Ministry that the issue has been raised with the anomalies committee of the 7th Pay Commission, advocating continuation of percentage based system.

--IANS

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