NEW DELHI: In view of the dispute over pension of Ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal, who committed suicide on Tuesday night, the defence minister Manohar Parrikar has directed review of the payment details of over 25 lakh defence personnel’s pensions to rectify the anomaly, if any.
According to the defence ministry officials, in absence any dedicated central mechanism to check the payment disbursement details, the ministry receive several representations from defence personnel with their grievances. Even defence minister’s office receive hundreds of pension-related complaints from veterans and some even include case pending of 1950-60 also.
“We have learnt that there was a difference in subedar Ram Kishan’s pension. He was getting lesser pension than his actual entitlement. Generally, it happens at the end of the bank. But, now the office of the Control of defence Account has been instructed the review each and every pensioner’s details,” said a senior official.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said only one lakh ex-servicemen were facing problem in getting pension as per One Rank One Pension scheme and it will be resolved within two months.
Only one lakh ex-servicemen (out of over 20 lakh) are not getting pension as per OROP scheme due to some technical difficulty or documentation problems. We will resolve these problems in coming two months," he said addressing army veterans here.
Till September 15, Rs. 3, 866.88 crores has been paid towards first installment on OROP revised pension to 19,12,520 ex-servicemen/ family pensioners and Rs. 1,640.59 crores has been paid to 11,33,100 ex-servicemen/ family pensions towards second installment.
Senior defence ministry official maintain that ever since the announcement of OROP, majority of cases related to pensions are being sorted out by the Ex-Servicemen Welfare Cell functioning in each district. And the defence minister Manohar Parrikar himself resolved more than 500 cases of complaints which were sent to him directly.” Defence minister continues to receive at least 10-15 emails related to pension payment disputes. Most complaints related to problem with banks in calculations.