02 February,2010 08:34 AM IST | | Anshuman G Dutta
Armed Forces Tribunal slams government for taking away benefits from war veterans
Captain NK Mahajan never thought twice when he was ordered to march into enemy stronghold in the then East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh). Serving in 56 Mountain Brigade he fought a fierce battle in Tangail and became 100 percent paralysed after a series of life threatening injuries. For Captain Mahajan it never made any difference that he was a Short Service Commission (SSC) officer. But something, which even the bullets fired from Pakistani guns could not achieve, the Government of India did with a discriminatory order.
The war veterans are waging a legal battle to claim benefits taken
away from them pic/Rajeev Tyagi
The government never gave Mahajan and several other SSC officers and jawans the full compensation for being a war wounded soldier only because they were short service officers. "Indira Gandhi government had promised us full pension based on the maximum salary for our ranks. The order also assured us complete retirement and gratuity benefits, but the fifth pay commission in year 1996 reversed everything," Captain NK Mahajan told MiD DAY.
The fifth pay commission ordered that all the war wounded from SSC category will be given the minimum salary on their rank and so forth the other benefits like retirement gratuity. But it was not the fifth pay commission only, which insulted the war veterans. "Post 1971 war the soldiers who became 100 per cent disabled were provided an attendant allowance of Rs 600, a sum way too low and disrespectable considering the sacrifice of the soldiers, moreover there are people like who need a permanent attendant," said Mahajan.u00a0u00a0
While the union government realised and corrected its mistake by raising the attendant allowance from Rs 600 to Rs 3000 per month the war veterans had to resort to a court battle to claim their other dues. "We filed a writ petition in year 2004 in the High Court requesting it to direct the government to reconsider its order. While the pay commission decreased the pension there was an old order which said that only PC officer will get the benefits of gratuity," said advocate Ashiwarya Bhati.
She also informed that government had put an embargo that service element and disability element of the benefits provided to the war disabled soldiers can not be more than their last drawn salary.
Delhi High Court directed the matter to newly commissioned Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) which has finally asked the government to reconsider the entire decision. "The principal bench of justice AK Mathur and lieutenant general ML Naidu came down heavily on the government.u00a0 It also said that when the bullet fired by the enemy does not differentiate between SSC and PC officer why the government of India is discriminating between officers on this ground," said Bhati.
