Defense minister Mrs. Niramal Sitharaman has taken a decision recently which is likely to benefit border troops and their families. She has decided to give liberalized family pension to army personnel working on the Line of Control (LoC) or international border along Pakistan.
This proposal of liberalized pension for the families of those soldiers covers accidental death or sustained injury due to natural calamities such as landslides, cyclone, floods, avalanches, fire or lightning while performing operational duties. It also covers death or injury sustained during the movement against enemy forces and armed forces in the operational area.
Army personnel who die on the western front with Pakistan get “liberalized” family pensions and “enhanced” ex gratia, but those on the north-eastern and eastern fronts with China do not. The Indian Army has been battling to get this “continuing injustice” rectified for decades, but without any success to date.
The issue has become all the more relevant in hostile high-altitude regions along the four thousand kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh (AP), as a fall-out of the Doklam stand-off near the tri-junction of Sikkim-Bhutan and Tibet
A liberalized family pension is 100% equivalent to a soldier’s last drawn pay. The family pension for a soldier who dies on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is only sixty percent of the last drawn pay. On the other hand, enhanced ex gratia to the family of a soldier dying on the Line of Control (LoC) would amount to around Rs 45 lakh. But this amount will be about Rs 35 lakh on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
A senior officer said “It is crucial to understand that the operational conditions on the line of Actual Control (LAC) often have more challenges than the 778-km long Line of Control (LoC) and the 198-km international boundary in Jammu & Kashmir with Pakistan. But the families of those soldiers on the LAC get fewer benefits as compared to those on LoC area and Internation Boundary (IB) “. He also added, “Families of soldiers, who have lost their lives in the duty time, whether due to cross-border firings or accidents and avalanches, should not be treated differently”.
Notification of Operation Falcon would lead to “higher compensation” for soldiers who continue to be forward deployed along the LAC, on the lines of the notified Operation Rakshak along the Line of Control (LoC) or Operation Meghdoot (OM) underway since 1984 in the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge region. As per the rules of Indian Army, a soldier has declared a “battle casualty” if his death occurs in an operationally notified area.
All these proposals were old, now it is good news for all the relatives of those soldiers. The defense minister has approved that the same benefit of liberalized family pension will be extended to army personnel deployed along LAC along India-China border.
Pension amount has been a hot topic among the soldiers and all armed forces. They have been demanding ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) for many years. There was a major agitation in the last year 2016 by the army personnel for the demand of OROP. This latest move of defense minister might allay the fears of large no of army officials.
