THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The decision to bring the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) fully under the Defence Ministry has boosted the hopes of thousands of Keralite serving and retired personnel of the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF). It has been their long-standing demand that GREF should be treated on an equal footing with other arms of the defence services.
GREF forms a sizable part of BRO and Kerala accounts for 10,000 serving GREF personnel and 26,000 pensioners and widows. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday that BRO, which builds roads in the border areas, would be brought fully under the Defence by the next budget. Now BRO/GREF is attached to the Road Transport and Highways Ministry for budgetary purposes, while Defence holds administrative control.
“Now it will be easier for the government to provide GREF personnel also the same benefits as other defence personnel. For years we have been denied them. GREF personnel too are recruited as ‘combatants in the army’ but there is discrimination when it comes to other pension and other benefits,” T J Gopakumar, chief coordinator, All-India GREF Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association, said.
Ex-GREF personnel have been pressing the Centre for long to end the discrimination between GREF and other armed forces personnel.
While welcoming the new decision, they point out that there is still much to be done before their grievance is fully redressed.
“GREF personnel forms 60 per cent of BRO and Kerala’s contribution to GREF/BRO is substantial. GREF’s total strength is around 42,000 and pensioners/widows number 1.25 lakh. Of them, 10,000 serving personnel and 26,000 pensioners/widows are from Kerala,” Gopakumar said.
“Of the 26,000, majority get a pension of Rs 6,000 or less. What can you do today with Rs 6,000?” Gopakumar asked. Recently, they also met the Defence Minister, who, according to them, had assured a lasting solution within two months. One demand of ex-GREF personnel is that the government stop treating them as ‘Non-Industrial Civilians from Defence Services’ and remove them from the purview of the Central Civil Service Rules (CCS).