Remove HRA anomaly for non-military stations: AFT

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13

In a major relief to Army officers posted in areas with no provision of official residential accommodation, the Armed Forces Tribunal has directed the Union Government to resolve the anomaly and reimburse the house rent allowance (HRA) of such officers posted to hard non-military stations.

Ordering the government to release HRA to Lt Col MK Hooda, posted to Sainik School, Rewari, the Tribunal’s Chandigarh Bench   ruled that it was distressing that the list of hard non-military stations (HNMS) had not been upgraded. The anomalies, as such, had not been removed even after two decades, it said.

Lt Col Hooda was posted as the Registrar and since the school was being established, there was no official accommodation. Such stations, called HNMS, entitle officers to retain their families at a selected place of residence and in case no military family accommodation is available, personnel are entitled to HRA for hiring own accommodation.

However, the HRA claim was rejected on the pretext that while Rewari had been declared HNMS in 1991 for officers posted to NCC units, it wasn’t declared HNMS for the Sainik School since it was raised in 2009.