Yes, blame it on all and sundry but not your own system!

Resistance to change or rigidity of thought? Can’t say. Can’t fathom. And it is tiring.

The forces can opt to keep their eyes closed, but psychiatric ailments and related incidents such as suicides and fratricides are on the rise and of course now in the public eye.

With growing involvement of the security forces in operations all over, not just the defence services but the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are also facing a steady rise in psychiatric and behavioural disorders.

But what is worth condemning and also a cause of worry is the casual dismissal of such incidents on the grounds of being ‘domestic issues’ and bizarre pretexts such as the growing use of mobile phones and improved lines of communication.

Let us tackle the ‘domestic issues’ front first. When a person is invalided out or released in a low medical category on account of a psychiatric disorder, military medical boards are quick to term such disabilities as ‘constitutional disorders’ and as emanating from domestic issues and hence ‘neither attributable to, nor aggravated by military service’ thereby denying the person and his family all service benefits including pension.

Now please tell me, even if a ‘domestic issue’ is taken as the source of a disability or disorder, can it not have a link with military service? Well, in most of the cases it would. Most of the year, a member of a security force remains away from his (or her) family in a regimented environment. Domestic issues such as studies of children, safety of family, property disputes, administrative issues or even minor irritants etc are bound to aggravate the psychiatric condition of a person for the simple reason that being away from the family he feels helpless, and coupled with this is the very true fact of an insensitive civil administration and the dipping scale of respect for the profession of arms.

Compare with him a person with ‘domestic issues’ who is a civil employee who stays with his family and is there for them every single minute of their lives. Domestic issues would not affect a civilian employee living with his family but surely would affect a member of a security force who is not there with them, who is not there for them. An encroachment of a person’s house back in his village is definitely a ‘domestic issue’ but his not being there to effectively sort it out is definitely not a ‘domestic issue’ and is linked with military service. The non-issuance of a domicile certificate for a jawan’s child for purposes of admission in an educational institution definitely is a personal problem, but his not being able to resolve it since he is ‘stateless’ or since he is unable to pursue his remedies properly is definitely related to the rigours of military service and its exigencies. The internal mechanism to cope up with such situations would unquestionably be more fickle in the case of members of the uniformed community. So how is it that domestic issues would not have a role to play in aggravating psychiatric or behavioural disorders? If life in the forces cannot be made stress-free, the least that the medical establishment can do is to make it a rule, rather than an exception, to favourably view such disorders for declaration of ‘aggravation due to military service’ in order to at least grant benefits to the person if he is released from service in such a condition. But no, our eyes are closed and so is our mind! I would again pray that one day the office of the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services wakes up and embraces medical science rather than outdated practices and principles of mathematics. 

Senior officers also regularly blame mobile phones for many ills facing the Indian military. Now tell me, do we want our troops to live in the past without any lines of communication? Do we want our youth joining the services to remain backward while their counterparts continue to enjoy the joys of technology? Would we be able to attract the correct talent if we consider improved lines of communication a bane? The answer would be in the negative. Does someone even realise that perhaps mobile telephony may actually be reducing stress levels of troops by helping them keep in touch with their families and reducing ancillary worries? No please, ignorance is not bliss! Not in this time and age. A simple reassuring call that things are alright back home could soothe nerves and not the opposite as is being widely believed. Cuts both ways but the benefits of mobile telephones outweigh the shortcomings. Instead of working on a regressive thought-process, the leadership may well be advised to find ways and means within the four corners of the times we live in. To top it all, there are no clinical psychologists in situations where they are required. Even the number of psychiatrists is pretty low. To further add to the injury,  the system is anti-disabled from all sides with the main thrust of litigation of the defence services being against their own disabled soldiers.

While most armies of democracies move towards recognising and accepting the problem of rising stress levels and thereby addressing it, we on the other hand have our eyes shut and continue to proclaim that fauj is one of most stress free occupations in the world. Keep sleeping.  

 

Yes, blame it everywhere but on your own house!

 

Courtsey: Major Navdeep Singh

IAF inducts Swiss basic trainer aircraft Pilatus PC-7 MK II

HYDERABAD: The IAF training academy at Dundigal today witnessed the induction of basic trainer aircraft Pilatus, PC-7 Mk-II, into the Air Force.

Union Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh unveiled the Swiss made aircraft at a ceremony here.

Led by Group Captain R S Nandedkar, three PC-7 MK II aircraft put up an air display for dignitaries, including Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh P K Mohanty, Swiss  Ambassador Linus Van Castelmur and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Training Command, Air Marshal Rajinder Singh.

Jitendra Singh was flown on the aircraft on a sortie. This marked the first formal flight of the trainer aircraft at the Air Force Academy in Dundigal, Hyderabad.

"The induction of PC-7 MK II as basic trainer aircraft into IAF is a very important landmark in our nation's quest to modernise armed forces," the Minister said.

 

IAF inducts Swiss basic trainer aircraft Pilatus PC-7 MK II
 "Pilatus will prove to be the ideal platform that will train ab-initio trainees about nuances of basic flying and expose them to modern avionics and navigation aids. It will provide a solid foundation and facilitate a seamless transition from ab-initio stage through intermediate and advanced stages into full-fledged operational flying for all streams," Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne said.

The aircraft would be used for basic training of all IAF pilots, in addition to those of the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard. Until recently, this role was performed by the reliable but ageing workhorse, HJT-16 Kiran aircraft.

A comprehensive infrastructure upgrade is already underway at the Air Force academy which will receive a total of 75 aircraft from Pilatus, Switzerland.

The government approved the procurement of the aircraft in May last year. The first batch arrived at the Air Force Academy in February as part of an accelerated induction plan. The first batch of flight cadets will start training from July onwards.

"These aircraft will remain with us for the next 30 to 40 years. We signed a contract (deal for aircraft supply) in May last year and we already have 12 aircraft. By the time we start the first course in July, we will have 14 aircraft. And by this year end, we will have 30 aircraft in the academy. All the 75 aircraft will be with us by the end of August, 2015," Browne told reporters.

He said the induction of C-17 aircraft from the US will take place next month and the first aircraft is scheduled to arrive on June 17.

"At the end of July we will have three C-17 aircraft, which is a strategic aircraft with almost double the capacity of Ilyushin Il-76. Intense negotiations are on for mid-air flight refuelling aircraft, while negotiations are already over for the C-130J transport aircraft from the US," he said.

"We are also in the process of finalising heavy-lift helicopters from Boeing and also to induct Apache attack helicopters. Negotiations on the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft deal with French Rafale is progressing on track. These things have been moving smoothly and most of these, we hope to finalise by September or October," he said.

To a query on the Pilatus deal, Browne said there is a requirement of close to 173 trainer aircraft.

"Right now, the deal with Pilatus is for 75 aircraft. We have exercised an offset clause option for 37 more aircraft and that is part of the first contract. The matter is now with the Ministry of Defence," he said.

 

Source: The Economic Times

History of Central Pay Commissions

History of Central Pay Commissions

Since India's Independence, six pay commissions have been set up on a regular basis to review and make recommendations on the work and pay structure of all civil and military divisions of the Government of India.

First Pay Commission 

The first pay commission was constituted in May 1946, and had submitted its report in a year. And the importance is on the report. Chairman was Srinivasa Varadachariar.  The first pay commission was based upon the idea of “living wages” to the employees, this idea was taken from the Islington Commission and the commission observed that “the test formulated by the Islington Commission is only to be liberally interpreted to suit the conditions of the present day and to be qualified by the condition that in no case should be a man’s pay be less than a living wage." The commission emphasised on the idea of the living wages and stated that the government which is going to introduce the minimum wages legislation for the workers of the private industry should also follow the same principle for its own employees. The commission basically recommended that the lowest rung employee should at least get minimum wages.

Second Pay Commission 

The second pay commission was set up in August 1957, 10 years after independence and it gave its report after two years. The recommendations of the second pay commission had a financial impact of Rs 396 million. The chairman of the second pay commission was Jaganath Das.The second pay commission reiterated the principle on which the salaries have to be determined. It stated that the pay structure and the working conditions of the government employee should be crafted in a way so as to ensure efficient functioning of the system by recruiting persons with a minimum qualification.

Third Pay Commission 

The third pay commission set up in April 1970 gave its report in March 1973 i.e. it took almost 3 years to submit the report, and created proposals that cost the government Rs. 1.44 billion. The chairman was Raghubir Dayal. The third pay commission added three very important concepts of inclusiveness, comprehensibility, and adequacy for pay structure to be sound in nature. The third pay commission went beyond the idea of minimum subsistence that was adopted by the first pay commission. The commission report say that the true test which the government should adopt is to know whether the services are attractive and it retains the people it needs and if these persons are satisfied by that they are getting paid.

Fourth Pay Commission 

Constituted in June 1983, its report was given in three phases within four years and the financial burden to the government was Rs.12.82 billion.^[3] This commission has been set up on dated 18.3.1987, Gazette of India (Extra ordinary) Notification No 91 dated 18.3.1987, The chairman of fourth pay commission was P ←N Singhal.

Fifth Pay Commission 

The Fifth Pay Commission was set up in 1994 at a cost of Rs. 17,000 crore. The chairman of fifth pay commission was Justice S. Ratnavel Pandian.

Financial Impact of Fifth Pay Commission 

With the implementation of the Fifth Pay commission a huge burden was taken up by the central government. It declared hike in salary of about 3.3 million central government employees. Further, it also insisted on pay revision at the state government level. The Fifth pay commission disturbed the financial situation of both the Central and the State Governments and led to a hue and cry after its implementation. The Central government's wage bill before the implementation of the commission’s recommendations was 218.85 billion in 1996-1997 which also included pension dues and by 1999 it shoot up by about 99% and the burden on the exchequer was about to Rs 435.68 billion in 1999-2000.With regard’s to the state government the bill went up by 74%. The state governments which paid about Rs 515.48 billion in 1997 as salaries, had to pay Rs 898.13 billion in 1999 as salaries. This clearly indicates the burden on the state and the central government. Many economists^[who?] say that about 90% of the revenue of the state went in as salaries. 13 states of India were not in a position to pay salaries to its employees due to the hike and hence the central government’s help was sought.

Other recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission 

One of its recommendations was to slash government work force by about 30%. It also recommended to reduce the number of pay scale from 51 to 34 and to not recruit to about 3,50,000 vacant position in the government. None of these recommendations were implemented.

Criticisms of World Bank on Fifth Pay Commission 

The World Bank criticized the Fifth Pay commission, stating that the Fifth Pay Commission as the 'single largest adverse shock' to the public finance of the nation. It also said that the number of employees of the government was 'not unduly' large, but there was a 'pronounced imbalance' in the skills. It noted that about 93% of the employees were of 3rd or 4th grade.

Sixth Pay Commission 

Main article: Sixth Central Pay Commission

In July 2006, the Cabinet approved setting up of the sixth pay commission. This commission has been set up under Justice B.N.Srikrishna with a timeframe of 18 months. The cost of hikes in salaries is anticipated to be about Rs. 20,000 crore for a total of 5.5 million government employees as per media speculation on the 6th Pay Commission, the report of which is expected to be handed over in late March/early April 2008. The employees had threatened to go on a nationwide strike if the government failed to hike their salaries. Reasons for the demand of hikes include rising inflation and rising pay in the private sector due to the forces of Globalization. The Class 1 officers in India are grossly underpaid with an IAS officer with 25 years of work experience earning just Rs.55,000 as his take home pay. Pay arrears are due from January 2006 till September 2008. Almost all the Government employees received 40% of the pay arrears in 2008 and balance 60% arrears (as promised by Government) has also been credited in Government employees account in 2009. The Sixth Pay Commission mainly focused on removing ambiguity in respect of various pay scales and mainly focused on reducing number of pay scales and bring the idea of pay bands. It recommended for removal of Group-D cadre.

Controversy 

Several government services, most notably the armed forces have complained bitterly of down gradation due to pay commissions exceeding their brief, and introducing anomalies in the relative scales of pay of government services. At present, the armed forces have represented to the government for the removal of anomalies which it is felt that the civil servants on the commission have deliberately introduced to upgrade themselves vis-a-vis service officers in the defence forces.

SC constitute a new Pay commission for trial court judges 

The chief justice and other supreme court and high court judges got a threefold salary hike in the sixth pay commission however the trial court judges were paid low and a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal constituted a new pay commission for the trial court judges headed by retired Madras High Court judge, Justice E Padmanabhan for recommendation of revision of about 14000 trial court judges. This order from the SC came because of a petition filed by All India Judges Association, which stated that the first judicial commission which was headed by Justice Jagannatha Shetty had said that there should be an upward revision of salaries of lower court judges in proportion to the hike to the judges of high court and Supreme Court. It also sought direction from the court to the center for setting up a committee "forthwith appoint a committee of one or more persons to look into the matter" relating the salary of officers in the lower judiciary.

From various sources 

Gauhati High Court endorses Limited Competitive Examination for the IPS, sets aside the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal

The Limited Competitive Examination (LCE) for induction into the Indian Police Service (IPS) was stayed by the Central Administrative Tribunal last year in a Petition essentially filed by officers of the State Police Services.

The CAT had later allowed the petition and quashed the notification of the examination as well as the amendment of the Rules incorporating LCE as one of the entries into the IPS.

The verdict of the CAT was then challenged before the Hon’ble Gauhati High Court by the Central Govt and also by some officers who had applied for the LCE.

The High Court has now set aside the decision of the CAT and has upheld the validity of amendment of the rules through which LCE has been introduced.

The entire judgement of the High Court (10 MB) can be downloaded by clicking here. 

Progressive guidelines on suo moto disclosure under the RTI Act

One of the most progressive sections of the RTI Act is Section 4(2), which provides that public authorities should endeavour to provide as much information as possible suo moto including through internet so that there is minimum resort to the Act for seeking information.

As experience had shown, the above provision was not properly executed by most public authorities as a result of which the public was forced to approach Public Information Officers even for sundry information which could easily be placed on a public platform by various public agencies.

To rationalize this problem, the govt had constituted a task-force and now has issued guidelines for implementation of the recommendations of the said task-force.

The following aspects shall now be placed in public domain, including on websites, by public authorities:-

A. Information related to procurement

B.  Public Private Partnerships

C. Transfer policies and transfer orders

D. RTI Applications received, their responses and Appeals thereon alongwith a proper search facility

E.  Information regarding CAG and PAC

F. Citizens Charter

G. Discretionary and non-discretionary grants

H. Foreign tours of PM and other Ministers

The complete Office Memorandum issued on the subject by the DoPT can be accessed by clicking here. 

FAQs on Implementation of OROP (Enhanced rates of pension)

Q: 1 Are these orders applicable to those pensioners also whose date of commencement of pension is exactly 01.01.2006 ?

A: Yes, these orders are applicable to all the pensioners/family pensioners whose date of commencement of pension is on or before 01.01.2006.

Q: 2 The date of commencement of family pension in respect of a family pensioner is 01.04.2006 whose late husband had retired from the service on 31.08.1999. Will the family pension of the family be revised under these orders?

A: Yes, the family pension will be revised under these orders because the deceased soldier was a pre-2006 retiree.

Q: 3 It is being contended by some pensioners/their associations that the arrears on account of this revision should be paid w.e.f. 01.01.2006 as the orders are merely an amendment to GOI, MoD letter dated 11.11.2008. Please clarify?

A: As the provision of these orders are effective from 24the September 2012. Hence no arrears shall be allowed for the past period.

Q:4 Will the additional pension also be revised accordingly ?

A: The improved pension will be the basic pension from 24.09.2012 and hence additional pension payable will also be revised accordingly by the PDA.

Q:5 The basic pension of a pre-2006 pensioner (Rank - Havildar , Group ‘D’) of Army having total qualifying service of 15 years is slated to be increased from 3500/- p.m. to 5301/- P.M. Is such a high increase in Basic Pension is in order?

A: The increase in BP from 3500/- to 5301/- P.M for the pensioner with particulars as mentioned above is in order. It is evident from the existing basic pension of 3500/-PM and the particulars given above that the PDA has not revised pension of the individual correctly w.e.f. 01.07.2009. The correct entitlement of the individual is as under:
Basic Pension w.e.f. :

 

Date	Amount (Rs.)PM	Cirular No.
01.01.2006	3500/-	397
01.07.2009	4635/-	430
24.09.2012	5301/-	501

 

Q:6 In most of the cases neither the pensioner has applied to the PDA for revision of their pension nor any Corr PPO or instructions have been received by the PDA from the PSA. Please supply the proforma of application in this regard?

A: It has been clearly mentioned in the orders that the revision of pension by PDAs has to be made with reference to Pension Tables annexed to the orders. No further authorization from the PSA or any application from the affected pensioner is required to carry out the revision.

Q:7 The tables annexed to circular No 501 & Circular No. 502 start from QS of 15 years onwards. How to revise the pension of a pensioner having less than 15 years if qualifying years?

A: Following elements of pension / type of pension are to be revised by PSA.

 

Special Pension

Invalid pension

 

Service element of disability pension in respect of PBOR discharged with less than 15 years qualifying service

 

Service pension of TA personnel irrespective of their QS service and

Service element of War Injury Pension and Liberalized Disability Pension

 

Q:8 Mr. ‘X’ who is a Hony Nb Sub, Gp ‘D’ pensioner having total QS of 24 years is already drawing a basic pension of 7750/- PM. However as per table – 4 (Army) annexued to Cir No 501, his basic pension w.e.f. 24.9.12 should be 7601/- PM. Please advise how to regulate such cases.

A: The existing pension of the pensioner in such cases might have been revised by PCDA (P) by issuing Corr PPO (s) based on some courts orders etc. No action by PDA is required in such cases.

Q:9 Mr ‘X’ is a DSC pensioner in receipt of two pensions, one for regular Army service, and another for DSC service. Are both these pensions to be revised by PDAs?

A: The pension for regular Army service will only be revised under these orders by the PDA. A reference for revision of pension for DSC service will be sent to PCDA (P).

Q:10 The tables annexed to Circular No 501, in respect of DSC pensioner seem to be incomplete e.g. the table in respect of Sep of DSC are only up to QS of 23 years. How to revise pension of a sep of DSC who has total QS of 24 years or above?

A: Sepoy in DSC have maximum engagement period up to 20 years only with the exception that the maximum term of engagement can be up to 23 years in case of pensioner retired on or 30.5.98. Hence QS in such type of cases may be restricted to the maximum permissible and pension revised accordingly. Period-wise complete list of maximum terms of engagement for JCOs/ORs is enclosed in Appendix-X to Cir No 501.

Q:11 There is no table annexed to Cir No 502 to revise Ordinary Family Pension for NOKs of DSC Personnel. Please advise how to revise such cases ?

A: The family pension in respect of DSC personnel who are in receipt of family pension for only DSC service are to be revised at the same rates as given for family pensioners of Regular Army. DSC personnel on “clerical duty” and “other duty” are entitled for family pension of regular Army personnel of group “Y” and “Z” respectively.

Q:12 What are the basic fields/data required to revise pension under these order?

A: The basic fields/data required to revise pension under these orders are as follows:

Type of pension viz Retiring pension/service pension/ Ordinary Family Pension/ Special Family Pension/ War Injury Pension/ Dependant Pension

Rank of the pensioner

Group of the pensioner (only for JCOs / PBORs)

Qualifying service (without weightage)

Record Office

Date of commencement

Date of Retiremen

 

Q :13 How to look for the above information in the PPO or related record ?

A: In case of Post -86 retires all the information is generally available in the original PPO of the Pensioner. In cases where the required information is not available in the PPO or other record of the PDA, the missing information may be called for from the PSA concerned.

Q:14 In case of Pre-86 retires Qualifying service is generally not available in the PPO of the pensioner. Pl. advise the way out to regulate such cases.

A: The qualifying service in such type of cases can be looked for in the original Descriptive Roll of the pensioner or in the Corrigendum PPO(s). Original discharge book/certificate issued to the pensioner by the Record office is also an authentic source of such information.

Q:15 Is capturing of information about Record office financially importance or can be done away with?

A: Following are the 4 major categories of JCOs/PBORs based on Record office.

Naval Record Office

Air Force Record Office

DSC Cannanore Record Office

All other Record offices except those mentioned above.

Different tables are available to cater to these categories and hence the importance of information about Record Office can’t be done away with.