One Rank One Pension and other demands of Ex-Servicemen

One Rank One Pension and other demands of Ex-Servicemen – Open letter to Prime Minister published Ex-Servicemen Welfare Blog

Shri Narendra Bhai Modi,

Honourable Prime Minister of India,

152-South Block,Raisina Hill, New Delhi-110011

SUBJECT: MEMORANDUM OF DEMAND OF ESME(JCOs/NCOs/Ors)

Respected PM Sir,

 We would like to thank our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji for his acknowledgement of sacrifices of the Sipahis, the Naiks and the Havaldars. When he mentioned us in his speech “80-90% militarymen are the personal below officer rank JCOs/NCOs/ORs. They are the very first person to face the enemy bullets and lay down their lives in the service to the mother nation. But as it is necessary to keep the forces young they have to leave the services at a very young age. After completing just 15-17 years in the armed forces.” We reiterate that Shri Narendra Modiji is the first ever prime minister who has openly acknowledged our services and sacrifices in line of performance of our duty to the nation.

At the same time, this is a pity and very sad moment for us the Sipahis, the Naiks and the Havaldars (JCOs/NCOs/Ors) that despite our selfless services to the nation we are relegated and sidelined by our own military leaders, ‘the commissioned officers’. We account for 95% to 97% of total strength of ex-servicemen of our country. All ex-servicemen organisations, every government department of sainik welfare and sainik department political parties are headed by retired military officers hence the issues of JCO/NCO/Ors like their legitimate rights, discrimination and poor economic condition due to meager pay and allowances, less service pension these issues never reach properly to the government and political parties. Even while serving we are totally dependent on officers and service headquarters. Which has resulted in exploitation of JCO/NCO and ORs as the high ranked officers, sitting in the Defence headquarters had vested interests and they were only taking care of their own cadre. After having prolonged discussions with retired JCOs/NCOs/ORs who reside in various parts of the country, the following demands are forwarded herewith for your kind consideration and taking appropriate action to implement our genuine demands with letter and spirit.

One Rank One Pension (OROP):

We are not accepting the current formula of OROP as it benefits only commissioned officers this formula is based on advices by officer centric organisations, who have actually hijacked the OROP – originally meant for the Jawans.

Whereas officers serve up to the age of 60 including re-employment. Officers work from tents behind which are air conditioned even in field areas. The officers are also highly paid with their minimum pension starting at Rs. 56000/- Per Month and going up to Rs. 100,000/- Per Month.

However the officers have latched up to the idea of OROP and redefined it into a prestige issue where, ‘No officer will receive less-pension than his Junior’, irrespective of date of retirement. We the Jawans condemn, deplore and totally reject this definition and strong arm tactics of officers. We also condemn all the members of officer fraternity for continuously publicly abusing the Prime Minister of our Country Shri Naredra Modiji on various social media platforms like Facebook (OROP Ex Servicemen group, Mission OROP group) and Twitter. Also we strongly condemn the IESM’s politically motivated ongoing hunger strike and Dharna at Jantar Mantar.

In the current formula the Jawans get a benefit of Rs. 500/- to Rs.1500/- pm, whereas officers get Rs. 20000/- to 40000/- pm in addition to their minimum pension of Rs. 56000/-

Under these scenarios officers demanding OROP is totally unethical, illegal and filled with sense of lust for more and more money.

In order to provide a decent enhancement to Jawans/JCOs pensions, we demand the following:

Only the Jawans (JCO, NCO & OR) retire at an early age of 35 to 40 years and only the Jawans live away from their families in much harsher conditions than the Commissioned Officers. The Jawans also work as SEWADAR/SAHAYAK (personal house servants) of Commissioned Officers and their wives and children to keep them comfortable.

Present hullabaloo of OROP is also eyewash. The JAWANS who form 97% of the ESM contingent are seriously misinformed, misguided by various OFFICER CENTRIC GROUPS. Our pensions were revised every 10 years any way. The JAWANS are CHEATED again. Jawans’ support to OROP is the biggest ever mistake of our cadre. Instead we would have showed fight for proper revision of pre 2006 beneficiaries. Let us expose the hidden agenda of the whole OFFICER contingent behind drama of OROP at Jantar Mantar.

THE EXPOSE :

1. Every commissioned OFFICER attains Rank of LTCol/Commander even if suppressed in promotion. No OFFICER takes PMR before reaching Rank of Lt colonel/Commander.

2. The colonial cousins(officers) were always having aspirations of putting their foot in IAS officers shoes. In 6 th CPC officers managed to upgrade themselves to PAY BAND 4(pay grade of IAS officers). Think of an IAS administrating/ managing a city/district consisting of lakhs of people. And a defence officer managing 50-60 highly disciplined soldiers. But due to selective socialism of Congress party now both IAS and Defense officers are on same pay band.

3. Now after implementation of OROP their biggest beneficiaries’ officers every one of them will be getting Pension equivalent to an IAS, as post OROP every EX OFFICER being in pay band 4. Basic rise from Rs 16400/- to 37700/- Nowhere in the world such a rise is given to anyone.

4. OROP is a conspiracy to give each officer staggering Pension rise.

In last few years since Timescale promotion policy is in effect. A breed of useless unprofessional morons have been promoted. Worthless posts are created to accommodate them. It is mockery of natural justice. At one place u don’t promote JAWANS equate them to a Jhaduwala of municipality. On the other hand free hand is being give to OFFICER promotion. And also declare deficit of officers!!!!

NFU and TIMESCALE are ways to kill competence of individuals. That makes jack a dull boy. Now a days top leadership of ARMED FORCES is acting like vampires to drain the life out of Indian youth.

Healthy competition is must for any institution to succeed, thrive be it a country or ARMED FORCES. But when in the name of selection. You have this so called Service Selection Board that is actually Service Rejection Board. Your SSB doesn’t want sons of soil to be officers. SSB in principal is against Indianness and INDIANs in general. They want to recruit people who are either dumb or can be converted into a dumber fellow later in ACADEMIES. The Desi robust fellow INDIAN (the Kisan) is simply not welcome and faces outright Rejection. The cult of defence ACADEMIES has succeeded in mass conversation of fellow INDIAN and turned them into COLONIAL COUSINS.

In India we have blood sucker vampires everywhere. They can drain blood from our veins in the name of patriotism, nationalism. Now a days its true with most of the officers and jawans joining in Defence. Once u are in there is no competition. Top Defence leadership is busy demanding NFU (Non Functional Upgradation) and timescale promotions Socialism is good in principle but has never been successfully implemented. Likewise outright capitalism is also draining mother earth of all its resources. We must find a middle path. Sustainable development, and sustainable living equal rights to all were principles developed by one Mr MK Gandhi.

PENSION, PAY AND ALLOWANCES :

Place the Diploma Holders in same PB 2 after completion of training (as the Central Government Diploma Engineers are). As per 6 CPC report, the Military institutes award Diploma in Nursing and those diploma holder Nurses are commissioned as Officers and are placed in PB-3. The Diploma Civil Engineers were place in the Rank of Naib Subedar before 3rd CPC.

Control the PCDA and CDAs from modifying the government orders/letters and going against the Government’s polices designed to benefit the JCOs, NCOs and ORs. Several Jawans are not paid the pension of the LAST RANK from which they were discharged/retired before completing 10 months in that rank. This is in spite of the ruling from AFT and several Court Judgements which favoured the Jawans. Please instruct the PCDA/CDAs to pay the Pension of the Last Rank held from 5th CPC onwards.

Accommodation should be allotted by rainbow system every building and residential area should have officer’s and Jawans quarters. No separate accommodation area for officers as this move will bring in more camaraderie amongst men and officers. Unlike their civilian counterparts the Officers and Jawans are employed to protact the Nation and thus are supposed to be buddies of each other in the times of war and peace. This in turn remove tag of untouchables from us Jawan’s foreheads. Same Roster of accommodation should be maintained in terms of Officers and soldiers.

Huge gap of pay between officers and Jawans should be normalised as per Government Norms (Compare pay of officers in Public sector Banks and Clerks). This will also enable the Government to remove anomalies in terms of allotment of government married accommodation. By equalising Salaries of NCOs (havildar/Sargent/Petty officer) to that of a commissioned officer as it is in the Royal Navy of United Kingdom government will be able to extend accommodations specially made for and made by the officers to the Jawans.

Equal Military Service Pay for Jawans/JCOs as paid to Officers 

Restoration of 75% of last pay drawn as pension which was in vague till the year 1973. This was reduced to 50% and further brought down to 38%. Equal widow (family) pension to be enhanced from Rs. 3500/- to Rs. 35000/- as currently paid to officer’s widows. Equal disability pension to all ranks – without differentiating injuries on rank structure. We the JCOs / NCOs /ORs are the rightful owners of One rank one pension and the officers may be excluded from this purview, as unethical and illegal claim. The amounts saved thus may be utilised for betterment of widows and disabled jawans/JCOs and their kin’s welfare.

Provide Fixed Time promotion or Pay Up-gradation to Jawans at the same rate by upgrading his Pay to the 6th higher rank of Subedar in 14 years or earlier. The Havildars must be placed in PB 2 and every Jawan should be up-graded to the pay of Naik in 3 years, to the pay of Havildar in 6 years, to the pay of Naib Subedar in 10 years or earlier and to the pay of Subedar before 16 years. Those who are promoted to the JCO ranks must be placed in PB-3 and every Jawan (JCO, NCO & OR) must get the pay and pension of the next higher rank from which he is discharged/ retired.

Form a Cabinet Committee to study the Organizational and Pay/ Pension structure of US Military and modernize our Military in the same order to bring up the status and confidence of the Jawans who have never failed in sacrificing their life for the nation.

The MSP element of a soldier is very cleverly structured & arranged by the 7th CPC comprised of Babus to deprive the soldiers of the parity with their civilian counterparts, they have calculated at the parity in the pay scale of soldiers ranks with civil post including the MSP .

The analogy & grant of MSP to a soldier is due to the following reasons.

1) The hazardous working condition of soldiers, including war, war like situation, insurgency operation, Pledged to sacrifice life in defending nation & living in adverse climatic conditions.

2) Performs 24 hrs duty in comparison with civilian who works for 8 hrs a day & 5 days in a week. The civilian employee Draws overtime allowance beyond that, Most of the Soldiers are staying away from their family & children in forward areas deprived of family life

3) The soldiers have given an undertaking to serve and safeguard the country for a specific period of time surrendering their fundamental rights unlike civilian counterparts who have trade union & right to strike.

Hence this is an additional benefit granted to soldiers only due to unique working environment & it is in addition to parity with civilian counterparts but not inclusive.

Further the element of MSP is given to soldiers in such a way to discriminate the JCO/OR who constitute a major chunk of armed forces. If we take an example of an infantry division, the real threat to life is more for JCO/OR who is in the forefront of war field & a mere MSP of Rs 5200/is recommended for them. In short lives of different categories are differently valued.

7CPC regarding M S P – SOLDIERS’ HARDSHIP ALLOWANCE. 

In the seventh pay commission the report recommended to grant of M S P @ ₹5200/- only for the Jawan / JCO’s , who are directly involve in hostile operation / LoC/ Insurgency area and deployed along the “Siachen glacier “, the world coldest and highest battle field.where as Officers who are sitting in comfort ACs/ Heaters and full support of Sahayaks around them recommended M S P@ ₹15500/-. Nursing Officers who are never involved in any hostile operations and employed with secured Hospital recommended for ₹10800/- for holding Officer status. What a injustice again created by the Govt due to silence mode of Officers , is it correct are they fighting for Jawan/JCOs no they all are creating a drama only for their requirements , that’s why we are against such type of activities/people’s.

A soldier who is fighting at border and facing live bullets gets Military Service Pay (An allowance for danger to his life) Rs. 2000 / 5200 as per 7th CPC, and when he is hurt by bullet or wounded in operation a Nurse In Hospital who treats his wounds Gets Rs. 4200 / 10800 (7th CPC) and an officer who sits in AC / Heater fitted war rooms and plans how a war will be fought gets Rs. 6000 / 15500 as an allowance for threat one faces for his life

MSP of Rs 10500 is recommended for MNS who have no threat at all to life & working in hospitals in much better conditions.

MSP of Rs 15000 is recommended for commissioned officers.

It is to be noted that life is invaluable to everyone & discriminatory treatment in this regard is highly inhuman.

Let us hope that some sense of humanity will prevail on the political junta to do away with this inhuman treatment given to soldiers of the country by bureaucracy.

COLONIAL LAWS 

All the rules and regulations like REGS NAVY AND NAVY ACT 1957 are colonial laws (which you our beloved PM have already started abolishing) are made to harass the soldiers. These rules and regulations are made by the British to rule this country. Divide and rule policy adopted by the British is still continued in the Indian Armed Forces. After Independence, no change has been made in these rules and regulations. Officers of the Indian Armed Forces are like British and they behaving with soldiers like their slaves. The soldiers became the puppets in the hand of all these officers. “Boss is always right” phenomenon is going on in the defence forces. If any superior officer harass or abuse any soldier and the victim soldier complains against that officer, there is no legal action taken against the guilty officer, but if any soldier speaks against any officer then whole set of rules and regulations are referred. The false charges are framed against that soldiers and he may be thrown out of service by means of court martial.

Total Removal of colonial laws i.e. Navy Act 1957 REGS Navy as these laws and rule books were conceptulised by the erstwhile Royal Navy(British) and are tilted in favor of officers. These colonial laws are one of the major reasons for present untouchable status of the Jawans. We the Jawans of Indian Armed Forces need an Ambedkar a Gandhi to bring us out of these sewage dump created by using British system of divide and Rule. After Independence it is the Black Britishers who are ruling the Soldiers of India.

Time and again when we continuously talking about the deterioration in relations of officers and SOLDIERS of armed forces, it is a huge surprise that nobody speaks about a solution….

Now we compare our civilian counterparts!! Let us speak about SSC and UPSC. Entry-level qualification for Staff Selection Commission – Combined Graduate Level Exam and UPSC civil services is graduation in any stream. No bar on percentage% and no bar on subjects. Now when an individual qualifies for SSC CGL He or she can get the posts ranging from 2400 Grade Pay to 4600 Grade Pay, all are non gazetted posts. Whereas qualification in UPSC exam yields you a group A gazetted post. There are some facts to consider. A 15-20 yr senior SSC CGL aspirant (2400 GP) earns the same payment that of a group A gazetted officer ( starting pay), when he retires his pay and allowances is more than a 5-6 yr senior UPSC aspirant. The above case is of a tax assistant and have not appeared a single professional exam in his life, if u compare with 4600 GP it is often more interesting. The career development opportunities offered is also great. After 2 Yrs u r eligible to appear a professional exam (no interview) and on passing that departmental Professional Exam you will be promoted to group B gazzetted officer and in next 18-20 Yrs group A gazzetted officer ( time scale). ( 30% of vacancies in group A filled from service and 70% direct selection)

What I find surprising in the above is the directly selected officers does not have any grievance with this system ( because they are Indians and thinks all are Indians) and the second funny thing is 50% of CGL aspirants does not appear for the exam due to the heavy responsibility shouldered by officers.

You all must be thinking why I am speaking this here!! Think entry level qualification for NDA and SOLDIERS recruitment is same and funny part is percentage is fixed for Jawans’ entry level exam but not for NDA but the difference in pay and perks are so high that a Jawan whose top most grade is JCO cannot even touch the starting salary of a junior most officer in his entire career (probably due to huge difference in allowances with DA admissible)

A directly recruited officer when joins the forces normally he sees his future in his own Commanding Officer and there are many more avenues open to him when he performs. If he is not performing then also he gets an assured job up to 54 Yrs of age!! Assured promotion up to the rank of Lt Colonel in 13 Yrs followed by Colonel in timescale (26 Yrs).

In other hand when a soldier joins he sees his future in his coy. JCO and compares the difference!! Everyone knows how much it is!! And sees if not performed nobody knows when he will be sent out. No job security… Even if promoted to the highest rank of A Jawan than also he may be sent out in 52-54 Yr depending on his enrolment age. Despite giving the best he is not assured what is in the career for him… Half of the Jawans start thinking life beyond initial engagement and gets into preparation for life beyond Defence. Forget the enthusiasm, zeal and creativity for service, those who think to continue in service their condition is more deteriorating. Half of the time they don’t even know what is going happen with them!!! Life with full of surprise, on a day when your daughter is in graduation son in 12th Standerd your service is terminated!!! “Contract Not Renewed.” I have seen people were full of tears in discharge centre. Why this double standards?

If thousands of grounded officers can be accommodated in the Forces then why not Jawans? If it is IMPOSSIBLE then make the same rules for both fraternity. There should be two groups — one selected officers for future service and two the selected Jawans for further service. Rest all be sent out irrespective of the Cadre! This will keep the Forces competitive, young and more fighting fit.

Where is group B gazzetted status in Defence??? Why not the JCOs get that status? Forget branch commission (special duty) officer and honorary officer status for Jawans. They are purely British thought of divide and rule.

Tough JCO cadre exams should be conducted under CCTV surveillance to deny the Chamchaas of officers to get promoted. There should be a significant difference in pay and facilities of a JCO so that a smart NCOs strive for it rather than preparing for 2nd career in civil.

Officer centric policies of previous governments have hurt the jawans the most. These policies are due to selective socialism of previous ruling party. Their brand of governance is RED TAPISM give officers everything. They won’t let the rest to rise. Neither the governments of past nor the pay commissions of the past ever bothered to do their duties rightfully. Instead they towed to eyewash presented by officers. That Ruling party’s selective Socialism is very simple “APPEASEMENT OF OFFICERS”.

THE NO PROMOTION /NEVER PROMOTION POLICY FROM JAWAN CADRE TO OFFICER CADRE:

The Jawans:

The Jawans aren’t actualy retiring but they are forced to leave the services. May be it is the government’s wish that they want the forces to be young. But than the Jawan should be given more opportunities, to get promoted to officer’s ranks, and to continue their services to the nation. Does a single  citizen of this country think that only less than only 1% out of around 15 lakh soldiers are good enough to become officers? And the rest of us are useless and needed to be thrown into wilderness.

This is really strange that the same Integrated Headquarters who have recommended timescale promotions instead of merit based promotions for the officer cadre is not at all promoting the Jawans to officer’s cadre even on merit and discarding them like a toilet paper, after completion of their initial contract of engagement of 15 -17-20 years.

No time scale promotions for soilders. A Corporal/Leading Seaman/Naik can only serve till 17 years. A Petty Officer can only serve the nation till 23 years of service. If a Jawan does not have a good Annual Confidentiol Report and is not promoted to next rank. He will be thrown out of the service once he has completed maximum years permissible in his rank. This policy is devised to keep the armed forces young. Agree! That we need fresh legs to protect the country. But why deserving Jawans are not being promoted to the post of officers. In all central government and PSUs 50% of the posts are filled by promotion. But in the armed forces they have this hugely biased Service Selection Board (SSB) interview system. The entire concept of SSB is colonial and corrupt favourism and nepotism at all time high. Most members of SSB are defence officers and no wonder that more than 70% of serving officers are relatives of defence officers. We call is uncle colonel syndrome. Where they never promote even 1% soldiers to officer’s Ranks. This in turn results in 95% of Jawans of each batch leaving services after completion of their initial engagement.

The central government places its diploma engineers at Pay Band 2 with Rs.4200/- grade pay. Whereas military diploma holders are paid what the central govt. pays to its peons and safaiwala!!! 5200(Basic)+2000(grade pay)

The officers:

All commissioned officers got pay and pension of Lt. Col rank for the rank of Major by placing them in higher pay Band PB-4 on completion of 21 years service (time scale Promotion policy). The commissioned officers arranged to upgrade the Lt. Colonels from PB3 to PB 4 by nexus with ministry personnel and defence headquarters. Before every pay commission the officers start hue and cry about shortage of officers in armed forces.

RECRUITMENT IN THE INDIAN ARMED FORCES  : ARMY/NAVY/AIRFORCE):

As our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Sir had said, we have to keep the forces young. We request the prime minister to intervene in the biased internal promotional exams and the match fixing happening in Service Selection Board (SSB). How on earth can someone explain that majority of the current crop of officers are kins and relatives of serving/retired officers.

The Recruitment process in the Armed forces has to change. We cannot go on following British pattern. All recruitments should start from soldier level and from there deserving should be promoted to commissioned officer rank. Pay structure should be as it is followed by other developed countries like USA and UK in those countries the pay package of JCOs are higher than that of Major.

In the Central Government the Staff selection commission (SSC) is the authority which conducts interviews and written examinations of all the graduate level posts for initial selection and Promotion. The SSC (Staff selection commission) is an unbiased organisation of great stature in India. The SSC should be made the organisation which will conduct written tests and Interviews for selection and promotion all the posts (officers and Soldiers) in the Indian Armed Forces. The SSC conducts a Combined Graduate level examination (CGL) every year for recruitment in all posts where minimum qualification is Graduation. Even departmental promotional exams are conducted by the SSC and has resulted in a selection system that is truly unbiased and trust worthy.

As we all know in Indian Navy and Indian Air Force initial joining qualification is 10+2 for officers and Sailors both. Recruitment and selection should be carried out by the Staff Selection Commission and not the internal biased bodies. Just as in CGL candidates qualifying will have to fill online option form to choose different posts

The officers have been spreading rumors about their strength in service and how so many officers are leaving the services. But this is a white Lie. If one checks the records of Jawan leaving the services one can find more than 90% of jawan are leaving the services on expiry of their initial engagement. (In case of Indian Navy that is 15 years). It is shocking that maximum numbers of Jawan are not ready to serve the Mother Nation once their initial Contract is over. I am sure that if equality, equal opportunities, respect will be provided. The Jawan will not leave the services in these many numbers.

Crying wolf “shortage of officers”

Absolutely there is no shortage of officers especially in Army. Every time there is a pay Commission then shortage is at highest level. Due to misuse of officers for useless jobs of mess parties, this and that worthless visit of seniors coming on private visits, attending useless whimsical meetings called by commanders, waste all their duty time. It is just wasting of highly paid manpower due to mismanagement and then crying for shortage as usual. Practically officers are detailed for jobs which can be done by any peon even. Getting bouquet, purchasing gifts for visiting senior morons every other day, then one officer with his wife to entertain her has become a routine job. Instead of doing his assigned job for which he was selected they are engaged in such petty jobs below their standard level. System is totally rotten. If a free and secret survey is carried out I am sure all junior officers will vote against the current system prevailing in forces.

Shortage of Officers in the Indian Armed Forces – A Sign of Serious Class Prejudice? 

The Indian army has been facing a shortage of officers for some time now. This BBC report says that the Indian army is more than 11,000 officers short. The Indian Navy and Indian Air Force too face a similar shortage. The Air Force needs another 6,000 officers and the Navy another 3,000.

Ever since the private sector in India started to boom, the Armed forces have not been topping the list of favored careers for India’s youth. India’s generals, admirals and air marshals complain that the armed services cannot compete with the private sector in terms of pay and perks.

However, the above is just one side of the story. Here’s the other side. Whenever the Indian army wants to recruit men (that is jawans or privates, not officers), they do so through a recruitment rally. Very large numbers of Indian youth throng these rallies. Not everyone gets recruited. For example, a month ago, more than 50,000 young men came forward to enroll themselves in the Indian Army at a recruitment rally organised in the Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir. Of the 50,000 who turned up, only 10,000 were found to be fit enough to be hired.
Once in a while, there are stampedes at these rallies and young men get killed.

Yes, there is no shortage of men willing to join the army as privates or Jawans.

The obvious question which arises is, why some of the non-officer personnel don’t get promoted as officers? I don’t have statistics, but I don’t think many of our Jawans get promoted to ranks beyond Subedar Major

(Sergeant Major).

The Indian army has not got over its colonial hangover. In officers’ messes, privates serve the officers. The Indian armed forces have not made a serious attempt to make themselves more egalitarian. For example, officers are still provided with batmen. In this day and age, making privates/naval ratings and airmen work for their officers as servants is so disgusting!

The answer to the problem of officer shortage seems simple and straightforward. The armed forces should make it possible for its non-commissioned ranks to enter the hallowed officer class. The emphasis should be less on speaking perfect English and more on having the necessary skill-set and willingness and ability to learn. The Indian armed forces are almost a million strong and of this, the majority are non-officers. Surely it will be possible to select a few thousand of the brightest and best NCOs and JCOs and make officers out of them?

EMPLOYMENT OF JAWANS: 

Today in the times of Skill India of Shri Narendra Modi, the Jawan are still ill-treated as un-skilled labourers. They are forced to do household chores of officers. This is sheer wastage of skilled manpower and this jawan who is hired to protect our Nation from enemies. He is paid salary for that from pockets of the taxpayers of our country. His skill, abilities, time and honor is wasted by this officer fraternity. Employment of Jawans for polishing boots of officers and washing dirty linens of their families in officer’s residences should be stopped forthwith. It is affecting morale of the jawans.  A soldier’s prime duty is to fight War and protect the nation, to get the solider to do menial household chores of officers and their families. The exchequer can save more than Rs 3600 Crores annually just by completely abolishing Sewadari system prevalent in the forces. It is further requested that severe punishment and fine of Rs. 10,00,000/- be introduced for violation of this rule.

In Indian Armed Forces all technical jobs are done by Sailors/Solders/Airmen. Technical officers do Admin jobs. I don’t have any grudge for that. Administration must be done by the superiors. But they projected the technical people as cleaners and tool handlers where as in truth all the major equipment are maintained and repaired by the technical sailors. This made the CPC to down grade the people who were highly skilled.

The Soldiers/Sailors/Airmen, who join the services in different trades, The mechanics who keep the fighter aircraft airworthy or the Indian Naval Warships Sea ready to be treated as fighter plane mechanic Marine Engine Mechanic not “scooter mechanic” that’s injustice. When that happens people would definitely come heavily saying “discrimination”.

SKILL INDIAN ARMED FORCES MISSION: UNIVERSITY OF NATIONAL DEFENCE 

Skill, Knowledge and Exposure : In modern society, anyone who selects Armed Forces as a career is well informed and educated. However the Recruits who join The Indian Armed Forces as Jawans are categorically denied chances and exposure to keep them below officer ranks. Instead of honing and developing leadership qualities in Jawans they are kept at bay and not allowed to take decisions. The officers should be directed to reinforce the confidence of a NCO / JCO. Middle level leadership in the Armed Forces should give adequate freedom to NCOs/ JCOs to perform their duties confidently. Competence comes with knowledge because experience alone does not make a man to grow to his full potential. A NCO / JCO should be given adequate opportunities to improve knowledge relevant to his service and trade. He should be encouraged to keep abreast with the younger generation by being open to new ideas. This would enhance his ability and confidence to work with subordinates. Even as a young jawan he should be exposed to take right decisions in complex situations, as part of a detachment to carry out important tasks. This methodology will pave the way for developing his leadership qualities.

The officers of armed forces seem to be having malicious intensions and are responsible for the social stigma of the Jawan who are labeled as un-educated and un-skilled.

The Jawans are recruited and trained in their allotted trades by the Defence. Young aspirants are taken in, trained throughout the service and are rewarded with FAKE Degrees from the MILITARY INSTITUTES.  The biggest irony is that none of the courses and training offered are recognised by the UGC nor these are affiliated to any university.   “Equivalent to Diploma” or “Equivalent to Degree”. Now, what is this EQUIVALENT without a value? These EQUIVALENT certificates from military institutes are not worthier than a fake one purchased from the market. These certificates and the words therein are so horrific and meaningless that it is better to leave them for Military Chiefs than to hang in the drawing rooms. So the highly trained and skilled Jawan when retires at an early age of 32-35 years, his qualification is ZERO. He gets nothing. 15 years numerous training and some papers also known as certificates but are of no value in civil, when one finds any Tom dick and Harry running a university affiliated colleges and engineering and medical admissions @35%. Everyone is a graduate in civil world. Why DEMEQ, LMEQ, POMEQ, NBCDIQ are not affiliated to a central university?? Why A highly skilled trained combatant soldier is more illiterate than a civilian graduate??  The record office issues us Jawans, with some FAKE equivalent to graduate certificate and some even more FAKE NCO codes and Sea Service Certificates. I feel pity on my silent tongue due to compulsions and on people who were supposed to look after me. My request to you is that A “NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF DEFENCE” be established just as #RAKSHA SHAKTI UNIVERSITY was established by Gujarat’s than CM now our PM in Gandhinagar, GUJARAT. This historic move will place our government back into the hearts of the jawans. A bad image of our PM has been created by some rogue elements on OROP issue. The jawans retiring after 15 years or more are being given some funny ‘equivalent to graduation’ certificate which has no educational value. Jawans are being cheated by the system so that they will not face competition from them in higher posts after retirement.

To cover all this up, the Jawans are offered pre release courses but they too are of no educational value. Retiring Officers are offered coursesin IIMs an IITs. The jawans are allotted hair cutting technology course.

These places have become heavens of corruption for grounded officers. Some Anti Government/ Anti National elements are holding rallies all over INDIA and misguiding the unsuspecting EX SERVICEMEN against our PM, government and ruling party.

On social media also they are busy spreading venom. Despite of announcement of OROP by the PM the retired officer fraternity is busy protesting and maligning the PM’s and government’s image in media and
amongst general public.

By announcing a centralised National Defence University where all Jawan’s courses will be legally affiliated to UGC/AICTE/NAGPUR FIRE COLLEGE/ DG SHIPPING the PM will forever write his name into the hearts of the serving and retired Jawans.

The Director General Resettlement eats into so much of defence budget actually meant for Resettlement of JAWANS and does only eye wash. Instead of reaching out to the root cause of unemployment of ex JAWANS in civil world and empowering the JAWANS. My recommendation shut the shop of DGR DESA etc. These places have become havens of corruption for grounded officers.

A so called EX SERVICEMEN organization is holding rallies all over INDIA and misleading the unsuspecting EX SERVICEMEN towards a Non issue OROP for personal political gains.

This is our top most demand that a new University of National Defence be established and all the courses and their curriculum run by defence establishments should be approved by and affiliated to the University of National Defence.

In modern armies the concept of having competent NCOs has survived; but the concept of JCO has met with moderate success. The systems being followed in some foreign armies are enumerated below :-

(a)   The US Armed Forces. Comparing the United States (US) Army with Indian Armed Forces would be an inaccurate hypothesis. In the US Army the role of NCOs in combat is vital. As a young NCO, he is given responsibility equal to, if not more, than our JCOs. 3 The NCO would be assessed for this on various occasions (to reach this level in his unit /sub unit). His position is quite well defined in the organisation, along with his role, responsibilities and duties.4 The JCO like appointments in the US Armed forces are more at the formation and administrative level. The percentage of such appointments is very low in comparison to the Indian Armed Forces.

(b)  Armed Forces of NATO Nations. Being a forerunner to the Indian Armed Forces, most of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) nations are still following the concept of JCO rank. Functioning and grooming aspects of their leaders below officer levels are very concisely explained in their tactical / operational doctrines, studying these concepts indicate where we have failed in our Armed Forces.

(c)  Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). SAF may be smaller in size; but, there are some aspects which we need to learn from them for betterment of our Armed Forces. In SAF the concept of JCO is given very less weightage. Induction of NCOs in SAF starts with a ‘Reasoning and Psychological Test’ at the age of 17 to 19 years. After selection they attend three years Graduation Program in Defence Institutes. These NCOs, being backbone of SAF, become ‘Specialists’ or ‘Subject Matter Experts’ (SME) on completion of studies.6 These SMEs are young in age with high potential and are able to carry out all kind of tasks during operations and peace time. After 10 years of physical service SMEs are promoted to the rank of Warrant Officers (WOs) who are equivalent to our JCOs. On becoming WOs, they are mostly employed in administrative duties; unlike the Indian Armed Forces where a JCO is expected to lead a platoon in battle. This system in SAF ensures that an NCO is competent, intelligent and young to lead a platoon during operations.

MISUSE OF NON PUBLIC FUNDS (CSD CANTEEN FUNDS

The colonial Laws and rule books have made the officers invincible to the rule of law. There are various welfare organisations in the Indian Armed forces for welfare of soldiers such as NGIS, CSD Canteens, NWWA, Canteens onboard Indian Naval Ships, and Gas Agencies etc. These orgnisations are registered with central government on the basis of “NO PROFIT NO LOSS” but superior officers are using this organisation for their personal benefits. There is no tax imposed on these organisations as these organizations are registered as welfare organisations. These organizations are earning huge profits and a large amount of money is being distributed among the officer’s messes and golf courses. The soldiers are looted by means of these welfare-organisations. Only internal audit of this organisations are being carried out and funds are siphoned to various officer welfare organisations for maintaining their party life. It is our demand that CAG Audit of all these so called Non Public funds should be carried out and should be made public. In its 75th report the Public Accounts committee (2012-13) (Fifteenth Lok Sabha) has recommended that audit of the CSD Canteens should be carried out by the CAG.

The Officers have Big bash parties around the year All CSD Canteen profits are diverted to officer’s welfare funds and to add to that Big Liquor suppliers like Kingfisher and big CSD supplier companies like Nestle are asked to pay huge donations for organising events such as Navy Ball. I will give you a very recent example of a CSD canteen where kingfisher products were not available for three to four months. The Reason behind? Canteen officer asked kingfisher to pay up sponsorship money amounting to Rs. 500,00,000/-(Five Crore) for organising Navy Ball event. Kingfisher refused to pay up the amount. After three months of No-sell kingfisher policy the company budged and paid up around Rs. 400,00,000/- and their products were ordered and made available for sale at CSD liquor counter.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN INDIAN ARMED FORCES

The Indian Armed Forces have a very painfully Racial and undemocratic tradition of having separate toilets for Officers. Separate kitchens and messes with better food amenities for officers. We the solders and the officers are in one service than why are they allowed to maintain so much difference. The officers have separate ques for them in all facilities like CSD Canteen, Military Hospitals. Even after retirement the same biased attitude and colonial rules continue.

The officers have Exclusive recreational Clubs where the Soldiers are not allowed entry. These clubs are located on defence land and are run by profits earned from CSD canteens. There is a famous club in Colaba Mumbai-United Services Club they used to have a sign board outside their gates “SAILORS AND DOGS NOT ALLOWED INSIDE” The constitution of India gives Every Indian Soldier equal rights to Use all Public places.

It is our Humble request and one of our top most demand that in a democratic country like ours, all this special status and special treatment available to the officers and their families to be totally scrapped and all the exclusive Clubs of officers to be made public to the Jawan and their families.

The officer’s residential areas are also made ‘OUT OF BOUND’ for the Jawans. Such policies create so much dissent among the Jawans and officers.

We should do away with all colonial practices. Instead Rainbow residential areas should be developed where kids of both the cadres will play together. Unified Messes where everyone eats drinks and merry, same kitchen, same dining, same toilets, no separate ques. Each one of both the cadres is the same VIP for the Forces. The officer fraternity should remove their mentality of keeping distance from their fellow countrymen – the jawans. The jawan is no longer Indian and they are no longer british. We all are Indians and we deserve EQUALITY, HUMANITY, COMPASSION, RESPECT, HUMAN RIGHTS.

There are hundreds of Jawans who die in harness in the line of duty but only officers are made Heroes by spreading propaganda of their martyrdom. There is discrimination in awarding Gallantry/Distinguished service medals.

PEACE TIME AWARDS (AGAIN INJUSTICE WITH JAWAN/JCO’s)

Strength of Jawan/JCO’s is 97% then, why should they limited to commendation cards and Honorary commission. Why they were not consider for VSM, AVSM, PVSM etc, when war time decoration is for them, then why not in peace time. There is a requirement of a review of the whole system of Peace time decoration for Jawan/ JCO’s. Maximum parts of these awards distributed to Army Commanders and PSOs at Army /AF/Naval HQs. Senior Officer’s sitting in respective HQs, there is a Committee of top brass for recommending these awards, but mostly they look after their own people. Now this is a requirement of time that these awards be banned for top brasses and be given maximum to Junior Officers and Jawan/JCO’s, those who are directly working on the ground. Again this year Jawan/JCOs cheated by these Officers and again projected the wrong information to MOD. Given below the complete list of awards, see the awards given to those whose representation is 97% of the total strength(Jawan/JCOs) and awards given to Officers those represent only 3% of the total strength. 1)PVSM–Offrs-20. Jawan/ JCOs—Nil, 2)Kirti Chakra–Offrs–Nil. Jawan/JCOs—2, 3)UYSM–Offrs-5. Jawan/JCOs-Nil, 4)Bar to ATI -VSM Offrs-3 Jawan/JCOs-Nil, 5) ATI-VSM–Offrs –29 Jawan/JCOs—Nil, 6) Shaurya Chakra–Offrs-5 Jawan/JCOs-3, 7)YSM–Offrs-14 Jawan/JCOs-Nil , 8)Bar to Sena Medal (Gallantry) –Offrs-22 Jawan/JCOs-26, 9)Bar to Sena Medal (Distinguished)–Offrs-3 Jawan/JCOs –Nil, 10)Sena Medal (Distinguished)–Offrs-37 Jawan/JCOs –Nil, 11)Bar toVSM — Offrs-5 Jawan/JCOs-Nil, 12) VSM–Offrs-71 Jawan/JCOs-Nil, 13)Mention in Despatches–a)Operation Meghdoot –Offrs-2 Jawan/JCOs-1, b)Operation Rakshak–Offrs-3 Jawan/JCOs-6, c)Operation Rhino–Offrs-1 Jawan/JCOs-1 Now this is our humble request to Defence Minister and Prime Minister to look in the matter and give justice to Jawan/ JCOs , those who are facing this injustice. During active service they are unable to rise their Voice against this discrimination. (The NCOs/ORs are the maximum number of casualty (the Martyrs)in action). The Indian Army should learn lesson from American Army who justify in awarding Medals to JCOs/NCOs/ORs. These awards fly in the face when compared to the ratio of men and officers martyred in any operation.

It is our Humble request that our genuine demands should to be looked into to make the Indian Armed Forces Invincible, that once we were.  We the Jawans of this Nation request the political leadership to show the will for bringing in the changes that are overdue since an eternity. And thus bestow #SainikSwaraj onto us all.

Jai Hind! Jai Jawan! Jai Sainik Swaraj!
Source: Ex-Servicemen Welfare Blog