THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: They were young men in their 20s with promising lives ahead of them when they responded to the nation’s call in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression. Now, more than five decades later, many of these men—former army officers—are doomed to spend their old age without retirement benefits, including pension, or medical support. September 2017 marks the 52nd anniversary of the end of the 1965 Indo-Pak war, but many officers who fought in it and the 1971 war as Emergency Commissioned Officers are denied retirement benefits on the grounds that they lack the tenure for being eligible for a pension.
A group of ECOs from Kerala—now in their 70s and 80s—are now seeking a policy decision from the Centre so that, as one of them puts it, they can “live and die with pride”. However, the Union government has so far turned a deaf ear to their pleas citing rules and regulations. “We are fully aware of the existing laws and rules cannot resolve the problem. But a policy decision by the appropriate authority can get it done,’’ says Captain Vettath Karunakaran.