Agenda for 1st Anomaly Committee of 7th CPC is given below:

AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION IN THE ANOMALY COMMITTEE MEETING TO BE HELD AT 11.00 A.M. ON 01.12.2016 UNDER THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF SECRETARY, DoPT)

The Agenda for discussion pertains to the issue of demand of Defence Forces Personnel for restoration of the percentage-based methodology for the calculation of Disability Pension to the Defence Forces Personnel. The 7th CPC has recommended a slab-based methodology for calculation of Disability Pension for them. As per their demand, while the 7th CPC has recommended slab-based system for calculation of Disability Pension for the Defence Forces Personnel, it has not made any recommendation for the civilians which continues to be percentage-based. Therefore, their contention is that the proposed slab-based Disability Pension system will lead to an anomaly between the Civilian side and the Defence Forces Personnel.

It has been decided to refer the matter for urgent consideration before the National Anomaly Committee.

2. The recommendations of the 7th CPC on this issue is contained in para no. 10.2.55 which is at Annexure-I.

3. The justification for the recommendation given by the 7th CPC in paras 10.2.49 to 10.2.51 are at Annexure-II, III & IV.

4. The representatives from the Defence Forces Personnel in a meeting held on 11.11.2016 have inter alia contended that:

a) That the 7th CPC-recommended slab-based Disability Pension System will, if implemented, lead to an anomaly between the civilian side and the Defence Forces Personnel because the civilian side will continue to be governed under a percentage- based system.
b) The basis of the 7th CPC recommendations for introduction of the slab-based system for the Defence Forces Personnel, viz. that the percentage of officers retiring with disability element has increased, is erroneous. According to their contention between 5th & 6th CPC, the number of retirement cases with disability element has, in fact, fallen as below:

c) 7th CPC has erroneously assumed that the slab-based system would benefit the lower ranks by narrowing down the gap between the maximum and the minimum. As per their conclusion, except for benefitting a miniscule number of Defence Forces Personnel who would get invalidated out in the lower ranks of service, the slab- based system would be detrimental to most ranks in all superannuation cases.

5. Point-wise inputs on the contention received from the D/o Ex-Servicemen Welfare at Annexure-V are briefly as under:

a) 7th Pay Commission has recommended slab-based system for disability element of disability pension for Defence Forces Pensioners. However, the 7th CPC has not made any recommendation for the civilians. The existing system of disability on percentage-based system would, therefore, continue in civil side. This has led to an anomalous
situation.

b) A comparative statement indicating the percentage of retirees with disability during 5th CPC era when slab-system was prevalent vis-a-vis retirees with disability during 6th CPC when percentage system was placed, is as under:

It could be seen from the data given by CGDA office that percentage of retirees for commissioned officers have increased in 6th CPC regime vis-a-vis 5th CPC.

c) Pre 2016 retirees 

The comparison between slab and percentage system of disability element for pre-1.1.2016 retiree pensioners have been made with reference to pay last drawn by migrating the same in 7th CPC pay structure and also by working out the disability element by linking the same with revised sendee pension under 7th CPC. The statements indicating rank wise, qualifying sendee wise status in both the said
scenario are attached as Annexure- V(‘D’ and ‘C’) respectively. The statement indicates that all commissioned officers are at disadvantage in case the slab recommended by 7th CPC is implemented. However, in case of JCO/ORs, lower ranks are getting benefited under slab rates.

Further the details of 1,09,988 JCO/OR retirees have also been analyzed on actual basis as data for these pensioners were readily available. It could be seen from the outcome tabulated as Annexure-V(‘D’), that lower ranks of JCO/OR are getting benefited especially Sepoy, Naik & Naib Subedar. Out of 1,09,988 records of JCO/OR processed, 85,640 (77.86%) pensioners would get benefited under slab rates. It is also
intimated to the Ministry that pension for all pre-1.7.2014 retirees have been revised under OROP orders. It has been observed/analyzed that the pension of JCO/OR pensioners who are drawing pension on OROP rates (pre-2006 retirees and post-2006 retirees who retired upto 2009-10), are getting benefitted under slab rates of disability pension.

Post 2016 retirees 

For post-1.1.2016 retirees, no comparison has been made as notification relating to pay entitlement are not yet finalized. However, based on the recommendations of 7th CPC, it could be visualized that future progression in new pay structure percentage-based system would definitely be beneficial for post-7th CPC retirees in all ranks.

Para No. 10.2.55 

The feature that stands out when the historical evolution of the regime relating to disability pension is studied is the shift from slab-based system to a percentage based disability pension regime consequent to the implementation of the 6th CPC’s recommendations. This move has been contrary to the tenets of equity insofar as treatment of disability element between Officers and JCOs/ORs is concerned borne out by the fact that the ratio of maximum to minimum quantum of compensation for
disability across the ranks is now disproportionately high at 8.6. The Commission is, therefore, of the considered view that the regime implemented post 6th CPC needs to be discontinued, and recommends a return to the slab-based system. The slab rates for disability element for 100 percent disability would be as follows:

10.2.49: The notable facts about the disability payout regime are:

a) There was a gradual rationalization in the number of slabs from eight, prior to 3rd CPC to three after the 4th CPC.

b) The ratio of maximum to minimum quantum of compensation for disability across the ranks witnessed a decline from 4.85 prior to the 3rd CPC to 1.67 post 5th CPC. As a consequence of the implementation of the recommendations of the percentage based system based on the 6th CPC Report the ratio of the maximum to minimum was reversed and now stands at 8.60.

c) Implementation of the 6th CPC recommendations resulted in a substantial increase in tire disability element. For 100 percent disability, at the minimum level, i.e., for ORs, it went up from Rs. 1,550 to Rs. 3,138, i.e., a little over double and at highest level amongst officers from Rs. 2,600 to Rs. 27,000, i.e., by 10.38 times.

d) Disability pension consists of two elements viz., service element and disability element. While the service element was linked with the qualifying service, disability element was not. Therefore, for the same level of disability, the service officer invalided out and one who served on and retired in due course, got the same quantum of disability element.

10.2.50 To examine the recent trends in disability cases, the Commission sought data and further clarifications with regard to all cases of pensioners with disability
element. The total number of pensioners superannuating with disability element, each year, from 2007-08 to 2013-14, as provided by the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) is tabulated below:

Subject: 1st Anomaly Committee Meeting to be held on 1/12/2016 under the Chairmanship of Secretary(P) on calculation of Disability Pension for Defence Forces personnel as per the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

The undersigned is directed to refer to Department of Personnel & Training OM No. 11/2/2016-JCA(Pt) dated 15th November 2016 on the above subject.

2. Point-wise inputs for the agenda note on the issues raised by the representatives from the Defence Force Personnel raised in the meeting held on 11.11.2016 are as under:

(a) 7th Pay Commission has recommended slab based system for disability element of disability pension for Defence Forces Pensioners. However the 7th CPC has not made any recommendation for the civilians. The existing system of disability on percentage based system would therefore continue in civil side. This has led to an anomalous
situation.

(b) A comparative statement indicating the percentage of retirees with disability during 5th CPC era when slab system was prevalent vis-a-vis retirees with disability during 6th CPC when percentage system was placed , is as under:

It could be seen from the data given by CGDA office that percentage of retirees for commissioned officers have increased in 6th CPC regime vis-a-vis 5th CPC.

(c) Pre 2016 retirees 

The comparison between slab and percentage system of disability element for pre- 1.1.2016 retiree pensioners have been made with reference to pay last drawn by migrating the same in 7th CPC pay structure and also by working out the disability element by linking the same with revised service pension under- 7th CPC. The statements indicating rank wise, qualifying service wise status in both the said scenario are attached as Annexure – B & C respectively. The statement indicates that all commissioned officers are at disadvantage in case the slab recommended by Seventh CPC is implemented. However in  case of JCO/ORs, lower ranks are getting benefitted under slab rates.

Further the details of 1,09,988 JCO/OR retirees have also been analysed-on actual basis as data for these pensioners were readily available. It could be seen from the outcome tabulated as Annexure – D, that lower ranks of JCO/OR are getting benefitted especially Sepoy, Naik & Naib Subedar. Out of 1,09,988 records of JCO/OR processed, 85,640 (77.86/0) pensioners would get benefitted under slab rates. It is also intimated to the Ministry that pension for all pre-1.7.2014 retirees have been revised under OROP orders. It has been observed/analysed that the pension of JCO/OR pensioners who are drawing pension on OROP rates (pre-2006 retirees and post- 2006 retirees who retiree upto 2009-10), are getting benefited under slab rates of disability
pension.

Post 2016 retirees
For post-1.1.2016 retirees, no comparison has been made as notification relating to pay entitlements are not yet finalized. However, based on the recommendations of 7th CPC, it could be visualized that future progression in new pay structure percentage based system would definitely be beneficial for post-7th CPC retirees in all ranks.

Shri D K Sengupta
Deputy Secretary
DoPT, North Block, New Delhi

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Grievances of retired veterans can be brushed aside easily as responses of an ungrateful government, but to cause demoralisation among those still in the fight is to cause grave damage to the nation which can have potentially serious impact on its core interests. No country ever became a great power by putting down its own military.

7th Pay Commission – “Report falls well short of the Standard expected of it” – Representations made by various civilian bodies are analysed in the report, those made by the armed forces are ignored entirely.”

Recent media reports suggest that the three service chiefs have together written a letter to the defence minister protesting the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, and seeking its review insofar as the armed forces are concerned, by a suitable committee with representation from the military.

At the same time, while addressing the annual Commanders Conference of the three services on board the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said everything would be done to ensure that the fighting efficiency of the armed forces remained high.

There is some mismatch in these two seemingly separate but related developments. While many of the issues of concern to the armed forces will, hopefully, be set right, what is disconcerting is the underlying theme which, through pay structures, downgrades the stature of the military institution. This is a potentially damaging scenario which needs discussion, as the morale of fighting men and the equipment they fight with are not different things, but two sides of the same coin.

The real problem is not the recommendations of any Pay Commission or the ongoing agitation by armed forces veterans, but the approach that is increasingly being adopted by the country towards the one institution which stands by the homeland in weather both fair and foul. In terms of recognition of the armed forces as an institution, governments of all hues, past and present, have had an approach which borders on schizophrenia.

There is high rhetoric on the regard in which the military is held by everyone; yet, no effort is spared to denigrate its leadership or to downgrade its stature. In the early 1960s, when the Army Chief protested and then resigned over the promotion of a clearly unsuitable senior officer, Prime Minister Nehru first assured General Thimayya that he would get the issue resolved and, on the very next day, castigated the chief in quite derogatory language in the Lok Sabha. The person in question was elevated and a year later, led his troops to a demoralised retreat from the battlefield which was even more traumatic than the defeat itself.

In 1973, despite the armed forces having provided the nation with a spectacular victory just two years earlier, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government, following the Third Pay Commission report, had no hesitation in reducing the pensions of retiring military men just as it increased those of their civilian counterparts. In the middle 1980s, when then army chief made a perfectly valid comment that the armed forces were as interested in good governance as others, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi got Defence Minister Sharad Pawar to humiliate the general by remarking in the Lok Sabha that military officers were trained to fight wars but were not well equipped to make such comments, which need not be taken seriously.

In 1998, the government of Prime Minister Vajpayee summarily dismissed then Naval Chief Vishnu Bhagwat without any notice, going so far as to fly in his successor into New Delhi quite stealthily in an aircraft belonging to the Research and Analysis Wing. Two years after the Kargil War, a visibly disinterested Prime Minister Vajpayee was present on July 26 at a ceremony to commemorate the victory gained at considerable sacrifice of young lives even as, on the same day, three prime ministers, past and present, along with several MPs, stood at a crematorium to pay respect to an assassinated MP who had been a dacoit and had cruelly murdered 22 of her own innocent countrymen; both houses of Parliament were adjourned for a day. These are just a few episodes better known publicly; many more can be cited. If this is not reflective of a split persona, nothing is.

In other major democracies, there are instances of military leaders having been asked to resign or even dismissed – the most infamous one being the sacking of US General Douglas Macarthur, a World War II hero, by President Truman during the Korean War. But there the former was clearly acting in defiance of the political directive. There have been cases where senior military men have been asked to resign on moral grounds, but never have efforts been made to downgrade the stature of the armed forces as an institution. In the same country, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sits as a full member of the National Security Council alongside his superior, the Secretary of Defence (the equal of our defence minister).

This is where India stands almost alone. The approach of the Seventh Pay Commission falls in this latter category. For it to argue, as it has, that in the pay matrix, senior officers of the armed forces stand on the same footing as their civilian counterparts, actually better, is more devious than naïve, as its members were well aware that only a miniscule percentage of the former reach those positions and at a later age, when large numbers of the latter do so at a much younger age. Another pointer to the discrimination is that while representations made by various civilian bodies are analysed in the report, those made by the armed forces are ignored entirely. There are many glaring instances of such insensitivity in the recommendations made by this body.

The argument that in any democracy, the civilian leadership must have primacy over the military is valid only so long as the meaning of that relationship is understood. If by this ‘superiority’ is implied that the civil bureaucracy must merit higher status and remuneration than its military counterpart then the thesis deserves to be challenged and refuted.

For those who have served in the armed forces, and this writer is one, the morale of the men in uniform is the first prerequisite to fighting efficiency. Demoralisation, for any reason, is both debilitating and defeating; it was poor morale, not outdated equipment (the Chinese did not have any better), that sent us running back in 1962. Various measures, some tangible – discipline is one of them – and others more indirect, are needed to sustain and foster high morale. This is a 24/7 and 365-day activity; and status in society and government, of which fair remuneration is an important factor, must merit serious attention of those in authority, both civil and military.

Sadly, the Seventh Pay Commission report falls well short of the standard expected of it. Therefore, if the three Service Chiefs have been concerned enough to address their political superior, it is for good reason. Grievances of retired veterans can be brushed aside easily as responses of an ungrateful government, but to cause demoralisation among those still in the fight is to cause grave damage to the nation which can have potentially serious impact on its core interests. No country ever became a great power by putting down its own military.

Source: Business Standard

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