Tension around pension

Lt Gen KJ Singh (Retd)

The much-coveted pension in the armed forces, earned after decades of toil, is regulated by an all-important document, Pension Payment Order (PPO), recently replaced by an electronic version. It enables pensioners to draw pension from the bank or from a network of Defence Pension Disbursing Offices (DPDOs). DPDOs are still caught up in issuing archaic monthly pension slips and pension regulators are indeed the most stubborn bureaucrats.

The travails of pensioners can best be understood by recounting contemporary real-life case studies. As Army Commander, I attended a felicitation function, where while discussing about the impending doubling of pension of a former Army Chief’s widow, it was realised that whereas she had been receiving pension, she didn’t have her PPO. Thanks to the efficiency of my staff, we could reverse-engineer the document through the bank. Despite it being a legitimate case and backed by an Army Commander, it required dogged persistence, arguments and repeated visits to get the issue resolved. However, a welcome spin-off was the discovery of unpaid arrears worth Rs16 lakh.

One only shudders to think of the plight of widows of jawans without any backing. Harassed by unrelenting ‘babus’, some simply give up and live in despair and often in penury!

Catherine Verma, an 85-year-old widow, recently won her litigation for pension, but her case should make self-respecting bureaucrats hang their head in shame. The late Col Raj Verma died in harness, while commanding 63 Cavalry in 1968. The lady had to leave for England in 1969 as she had contracted an ailment, which was better treated there. She drew her family pension till her departure. Unfortunately, some part of her baggage containing documents like the PPO, which was transported by sea, got lost in transit. Her efforts to get her legitimate and well-deserved pension through the Indian High Commission and even during her visit to the regiment (to attend the Guidon presentation ceremony in 1982), were all in vain.

Forty-two years later, in 2012, while I was serving in Army HQs, the case was mentioned by Maj Paddy of 16 Cavalry, who lives in Britain, during his visit to India. As Colonel of Regiment, we took up the challenge on behalf of the ‘Tresath (63)’ fraternity. After multiple visits to various pension offices, forced and unauthorised access to old ledgers for nearly a year, mercifully, the all-important link of payment by the erstwhile PAO, Tees Hazari, was discovered. Accordingly, an RTI application was filed to get the balance documents, evoking the standard reply that ‘no records except ledger entry traced by the regiment are available’.

The most interesting experience was helplessness expressed by the then Delhi Lt Governor, Najeeb Jung, after regular personal correspondence and multiple meetings, “Army Commander Sahab, yeh accounts wale babu hamari sunete hi kahan hain?” This forced the regiment to file a case in the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in 2018 after a process of legal notice, through a competent lawyer, Virender Verma, whose son is in the Army.

The only silver lining in this frustrating process was visits to Prayagraj and holy dips in Sangam. The mandarins of the Pension Department located at Draupadi Ghat, Allahabad, treat all pension-seekers as ‘Kauravas’, refusing to yield an inch. It was sad to hear that while everyone accepted the legitimacy of the widow’s claim and duty demanded reconstructing the PPO, yet they prodded for litigation and AFT directions.

Cases are getting queued up at AFTs and it is literally justice delayed and denied. Mercifully, after a fair deal of persuasion, this particular case was fast-tracked. AFT in Delhi last month directed that a fresh PPO be issued. Mrs Verma has a smile on her face, as her pension is going to restart after more than 50 years and hopefully, she will get her accumulated dues. More importantly, she knows that her family (63 Cavalry) will keep up the fight regardless of distance, time and obduracy of pension ‘babus’.

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