Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare working against interests of Disabled Soldiers

This is how our bureaucracy treats the disabled! If any ex-serviceman and disabled soldier moves a case for disability  pension benefits against Ministry of Defence, he will be challenged all the way up to Supreme Court, ruled the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) - a wing of Min. of Defence on 02 Jan 14.

In other words, a disabled soldier or war veteran either accepts what is doled out as charity or be ready to fight a losing battle even after winning the case in Armed Forces Tribunal in next two superior courts. Reason- Babus feel that reference to legal opinion is time consuming and involves lot of paper work hence the department will appeal automatically against each case won by the soldiers- first in High Court and then in SC. That means babus will pay hefty fee (from tax payers' money) to the standing counsels but not release legal dues ordered by its own Tribunal to the deserving soldiers...!  It is not a challenging guess as to how many disabled soldiers or veterans can afford to keep fighting from the Armed Forces Tribunal to the High Court to the Supreme Court!

An elected representative in parliament went on to write that the impugned order smacked of callousness and high handedness on the part of the Government and that the order would aggravate the misery of those who have lost their limbs or eyesight or sustained any other grievous harm in the service of the nation.

Its only after the hue and cry for over a month against MoD's heartless and desperate effort to "tire the disabled out" in the autumn of their lives, the defence minister has personally intervened.

Thank you Mr. Antony for intervening and withdrawing this most unreasonable rule thrown at the face of those who gave the nation their prime time of life, though after more than a month!

See Related Links:

Disabled Ex-servicemen get breather from Antony
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/showtext.aspx?boxid=34956953&parentid=90673&issuedate=1122014

Army Chief to Protest Defence Ministry treatment of Ex-servicemen
http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/army-chief-to-protest-defence-ministry-treatment-of-ex-servicemen-114011500026_1.html  

Resolve issue of pension of disabled soldiers: Smriti to govt.
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/resolve-issue-of-pension-of-disabled-soldiers-smriti-to-govt/1156349/0

Voluntarily retired soldiers entitled to disability pension

Now, all disabled soldiers to get disability pension
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-04/india/33034927_1_disabled-soldiers-disability-pension-lt-gen-ns-brar







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