Former SSC officers demand pro rata pension, ECHS benefits

Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 19

Accusing the government of "indifference", former Short Service Commission (SSC) officers of the Armed Forces on Saturday decried over the Ministry of Defence's dawdling on making the "severance package" attractive and raising the terminal gratuity for SSC officers by at least two times at their release from service as recommended by Ajay Vikram Singh Committee (AVSC).

They along with a large number of officers inducted into Defence Forces as support cadre either through SSC, Ex Emergency Commission or Women Special Entry Scheme Officers, protested at Jantar Mantar today to press for their long-standing demands of pro rata pension and health benefits based on one rank one pension.

Maj Randeep Hundal, president of Indian Short Service Commissioned Officers Association (ISSCOA), said, "We are demanding a proportionate pension for short service officers just as an MP who is entitled to pension even for attending one day of Parliament and it is revised after every five years. The government justified the same in the Supreme Court in a plea with the Right to Equality (Article 14)."

In support of their demands, Maj Randeep said the SC granted pension to ad hoc judges to clear backlog of cases, but the SSC officers have been "reduced to contract labour".

"We are fighting for the dignity these emergency commissioned short term officers and to redefine the status of ex-servicemen," he asserted.

Maj Sudhanshu Pandey and Supreme Court lawyer claimed the government has been "selective" in implementing the recommendations of the AVSC saying the government now intends to enhance the intake of short term officers as compared to regular commissioned officers to meet the recommended ratio at 1:1.1, but not acting promptly wherever there are financial implications.

"The government has not taken any step to make short service in army attractive. The committee has proposed that the SSC officers should be given severance package, a substantial amount, for every year of service tenure. The SSC officer is currently entitled to gratuity at the rate of present 15 days pay of six months of service and the government was supposed to raise it in the proportion of 1-2.5 times of a month's salary. The proposal has seen no action," said Maj Sudhanshu.

In July 2006 the mandatory service period was raised from previous five years to 10 years for short-service officers in defence forces -- something purposefully done to defeat the demand of pension, going by them. The service remains extendable to 14 years fro them.

Maj Randeep argued with the fact that the ceiling was increased to 10 and extendable to 14 years, it becomes all the more legitimate to give them pro rata pension and benefit under the Employees Contributory Health Services (ECHS) scheme based on same rank and one rank one pension.

More so, they said as majority are left high and dry at the peak of their career and with family responsibilities when their marketability becomes less unlike earlier times when after five years they could adjust to civil life.

Protesters, with many among them being veterans of Indo-Pak 1965, 1971 and 1999 wars and those who have fought insurgency in Kashmir and North- East India during their tenure of service in the past, underlined that it is a matter of their dignity.

The AVSC panel in its second part of recommendations also stated that released short service officers be provided with lateral entry into other central and state government services, including paramilitary and civil services.