EX-SERVICEMEN CONDEMN THE DEFENCE MINISTER ’S STATEMENT

PRESS RELEASE

EX-SERVICEMEN CONDEMN THE DEFENCE MINISTER ’S STATEMENT ON ONE RANK ONE PENSION

The Defence Minister , Mr A k Antony had submitted a written statement in the Parliament on 19 April that the govt would not be able to meet the One Rank One Pension demand of the Ex-Servicemen fully due to ‘’administrative , financial and legal grounds’’ . He cited the recommendations of various Pay Commissions in support of the decision of the govt . He conveniently forgot that the Parliamentary Committee on Defence , consisting of 44 MPs belonging to all parties , in its 20^th Report had strongly recommended implementation of One Rank One Pension. It clearly shows that the govt has no regard to the recommendations of the elected representatives of the people but gives credence to its own nominated bureaucrats . It is a very clear example of the bias of the govt against the Ex-Servicemen

It is shocking that the Defence Minister has not given any details of the administrative, financial and legal grounds stated by him against the One Rank One Pension . He should know that all the all the Hon'ble Supreme Court judges , MPs , Ministers , MLAs , DGPs , almost all the secretary , Lt Gens etc get One Rank One Pension . So where is the legal problem , unless the govt uses two set of rules , one for its elite and other for the Ex-Servicemen ? Also all Central Govt employees , retire at 60 and get to the top of their grade and as such get near the One Rank One Pension. If there is no administrative problem for them why for the Ex-Servicemen ? .

It is agreed that there would be some financial effect of giving One Rank One Pension to the Ex-Servicemen but it will be drop in the ocean of all the scams which occur with sickening regularity , the IPL case being the latest where in the govt lost tens of thousands of Crores of rupees due to tax evasion. A few months back , ministers and MPs were asked to o travel economy class and with in those 3-4 months the govt saved Rs 2000 crores . If the govt is so economy conscious why did it withdraw those orders as the travelling time remained the same and the comfort level did not vary too much? Is the economy only applicable to the defence personnel ?

The Defence Minister and the so called committee of secys do not know the condition in which the soldiers serve . It is therefore suggested that all those decision makers be made to serve in the high altitude area even for a few days so that they become aware of the horrible and horrific conditions under which the soldiers operate . Then and only then will they know what soldiering is and why the One Rank One Pension is justified . Such irresponsible statements that too by the Raksha Mantri affect the morale of the serving who too will be Ex-Servicemen one day.

With Warm Regards,

Yours' Sincerely,

Brig Harwant Singh (Retd)

President, The All India Defence Brotherhood (Regd)

91+98144  32554 and 91+172- 2270154.