Service element : civilian employees now at par with defence personnel

Disability pension in the defence services as well as the civil services consists of two elements – service element and disability element. While service element is related to the length of service (proportionately reduced for service below pensionable span) subject to a minimum of Rs 3500 at 6th CPC rates, disability element is linked to the percentage of disability.
With effect from 1973, there was no minimum service requirement for earning a service element in the defence services and a person with even one single day of service was made entitled to service element.
There is no requirement for a minimum qualifying service for earning a service element for civil employees too under the CCS (EOP) Rules, however this was true only for operational disabilities. For non-operational disabilities for diseases such as hypertension etc, there was a minimum requirement of 10 years of service on the civil side to earn a service element though practically this did not matter much since normally civil employees are not prematurely discharged on medical grounds as routinely as is in the case of defence services.
However now the govt has abrogated the minimum requirement of 10 years’ service for earning a service element on the civil side even for non-operational disabilities and placed them at par with defence retirees.
A welcome step indeed for disabled personnel from the civil services.
The letter, which has financial effect from 01-01-2006, can be accessed by clicking here.

When number portability is enabled....

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday will unveil mobile number portability in Haryana, allowing 18 million cellphone users in the state to retain their number while changing the service provider. Most of the country will have this facility by the New Year, while it will be available throughout the country by March 2011.
Here we bring you the to-dos of mobile number portability in six quick steps:

• Send an SMS to 1900 in following format: PORT - eg. PORT 9999999999.
• You will get an SMS reply that contains a unique porting code.
• SMS to the preferred operator quoting the unique code. This code is valid only for a few days, and one must apply again if it expires.
• Your existing operator will check with new operator & if there are no dues then approval will be given for porting.
• You will get an SMS on the time and date when porting will take place. Rules mandate that process be completed within 4 days of applying.
• After porting is complete, wait for an SMS from your new operator confirming the switch. Your phone may be dead for about 2 hours when the porting takes place.

Immediate Separate Redressal Commission for Armed Forces : Supreme Court (Updated)

The Hon'ble Supreme Court today ordered the immediate constitution of a separate commission to examine the pay / pension anomalies and other grievances of the defence services.
The functioning of the commission would be directly monitored by the Supreme Court. The Commission would comprise of Justice Kuldip Singh, Retired SC Judge as the Chairperson and would have as its members Justice SS Sodhi, General VP Malik, Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi and one person to be nominated by the Government of India.
The Commission would independently look into the grievances of members of the defence services and the Government would have no say in the same.
The Government of India, in its affidavit, had only consented to refer the rank pay issue to the proposed Commission and did not agree to any other term of reference. The Court disregarded the affidavit alongwith the stand of the Government and also ruled that the rank pay issue would NOT be referred to the Commission since the orders had already been passed by the Supreme Court. The Court also refused to recall or modify its earlier orders on the rank pay issue and instead referred the review application preferred by the UoI to the Chief Justice for directions that it be placed before some other Bench.
A historic step indeed for the Armed Forces of India.

The salient features for the said Commission, as laid down by the Supreme Court in its order, are as follows :
(1) The Commission shall be called ‘Armed Forces Greivances Redressal Commission’
(2) The Commission shall look into all grievances forwarded to them in writing or email by serving and retired personnel.
(3) Commission shall frame schemes for rehabilitation of soldiers who are discharged at young ages.
(4) The term of the first Commission shall be two years, renewable at the option of the central govt.
(5) The Commission shall be based at CHANDIGARH. Central Govt to provide adequate infrastructure for the same.
(6) Last drawn pay and allowances of the members to be protected.
(7) The Commission shall also recommend change of rules if in its opinion the same are defective or inadequate.
(8) All civil and military authorities to extend full co-operation to the Commission.
The complete order of the SC can be accessed by clicking here.

Treatment of MSP on re-employment

A fresh clarification has been issued on the treatment of Military Service Pay on re-employment.
The same can be accessed by clicking here.

The operative part is as follows :
“It has been decided in consultation with the Department of Expenditure, that since the element of MSP is not reckoned in the pay fixation on re-employment, it need not be reduced from the pension either. Hence, In respect of all those Defence officers/personnel, whose pension contains an element of MSP, that need not be deducted from the pay fixed on re-employment.”

Dearness Allowance for Central Government employees hiked

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Around 8.8 million central government employees and pensioners came in for a double, pre-festive bonanza with the government raising their dearness allowance to 45 percent Thursday, a day after hiking the interest rate on the provident fund by 100 basis points.

The decision to hike the dearness allowance by ten percent was taken in an union cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said an official spokesperson.

The decision to raise the dearness allowance over the basic pay from 35 to 45 percent to compensate the rising prices will cost the exchequer an additional Rs.9,303.2 crore per annum, the spokesperson said, adding the new allowance would come into effect from July 1, 2010.

The burden during the current fiscal has been estimated to be Rs.6,202.1 crore, she said, adding: 'Increase in allowance is as per the formula based on the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.'

Inflation stood at 8.5 percent in August, with food inflation hovering above 15 percent, as per the new wholesale price index, with the base year now shifted to 2004-05 from 1993-94 and as many 241 new items added to the basket of commodities to asses the benchmark index.

The central government has over 5 million employees and around 3.8 million pensioners, said the spokesperson.

The increase in DA comes ahead of the Dussehra and Diwali festivals in October and November, respectively.