Moneylife: Vinita Deshmukh: Friday, August 21, 2015.
Replies received under RTI by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) reveal how the President’s Secretariat and even PMO operate like a post office, simply forwarding the petitions and letters sent by top ranking officials on One Rank One Pension (OROP)
The One Rank One Pension (OROP) – the uniform pension for Armed Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement – has become an embarrassment for the Narendra Modi government, ever since the veterans showcased their strength at Jantar Mantar followed by 10 former service chiefs writing a letter to the Prime Minister early this week.
The present agitation by the former Defence Forces personnel is the culmination of a series of petitions made by them but handled casually as per information revealed through Right to Information (RTI) Act. Activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) had filed several of such RTI applications and found the shabby treatment given to these petitions. This is particularly, in cases where 22,000 gallantry medals were returned to the President of India’s office over the years between 2009 and 2014.
In other cases like, the blood-signed petition submitted to the President’s office in June 2015 and the open letter sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) office early this week, the treatment has been equally disdainful. As per the replies, all that the President’s Secretariat and PMO have done is to forward these petitions to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), as a matter of routine and there is no will to implement it or to take up the matter seriously, Batra says.
As the RTI replies reveal, the gallantry awards were returned in various phases. The President’s Secretariat in its reply to Batra gives the list of dates when the medals were returned. They were on – 2 August 2009 (3 sealed boxes of medals); 14 March 2009 (2 sealed boxes of medals); 12 April 2009 (1 sealed boxes of medals); 13 September 2009 (2 sealed boxes of medals); 25 October 2009 (1 sealed box of medals); 14 Mach, 2010, 22 August 2010, 28 November 2010, 6 March 2011, 1 December 2012 and the recent two letters, one to the PMO office and the other to the President of India.
The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) had shown disgust at the manner in which an officer of the President’s Secretariat had received the gallantry medals instead of the then President of India, Pratibha Patil personally receiving it, in her capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. As per the RTI replies, all these petitions have been routinely forwarded to the MoD’s Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare for action.
Maj Gen Satbir Singh (retd) also sent a letter on 14 June 2015 to the PMO, which was also routinely forwarded to the Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare. According to the reply received by Batra under the RTI, "The letter dated 14.6.2015, received in this office from Major General Satbir Singh (retd.), has been forwarded to the Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare, Ministry of Defence, Government of India, for appropriate action vide this office's ID No. PMOPG/D/2015/0131255 dated 18.6.2015. The letters received from citizens are processed through the computerised software system and without any file noting in the Public Wing of the Prime Minister's Office, therefore, no copy of noting can be provided."
The President Secretariat while replying to query from Batra stated, “Kindly refer to your RTI application dated 17.06.15 through e-mail. In this regard, it is informed that- (a) the memorandum dated 14.06.2015 was received on 15.06.2015. A copy of the petition is enclosed. (b) The memorandum in original was forwarded to the Joint Secretary (ESW), Ministry of Defence, South Block, New Delhi .’’
Batra says, “I have no words to express my disenchantment but to hang my head in shame to watch how our brave Veterans and their families who gave their today in safeguard nation's tomorrow... are being dingily treated by the nation.”
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