Indian govt decision to fix pay and pension anomalies of defence forces to benefit Gorkha ex-servicemen

Thousands of Indian Gorkha ex-servicemen – Nepali citizens who retired after serving in the Indian Army - are likely to benefit from the Indian government’s latest move to fix the pay and pension anomalies of India’s 1.3 million strong defence personnel.

According to a report in the internet edition of India Today, a prominent Indian weekly, the Indian government on Monday cleared a $430 million proposal as part of the move to provide all retired officers of the same rank and service tenure to get the same pension, based on the recommendations of a panel set up by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The report further states that the Indian government had tasked the committee to look into issues of defence personnel such as common pay-scale for in-service junior commissioned officers and other ranks; initial pay-fixation of lieutenant colonels, colonels, and brigadiers of the army and their equivalents in the other two armed forces; review and enhancement of grade pay; placing all lieutenant generals in the higher administrative grade plus pay scale; and grant of non-functional upgradation (NFU) to armed forces personnel.

The panel also looked into the ex-servicemen's issues such as 'one rank - one pension', enhancement of family pension, dual family pension, and family pension for mentally and physically challenged children of armed forces personnel on marriage.

Over 80,000 Gorkha ex-servicemen, 17,000 retired Assam Rifles servicement and 11,000 widows of deceased Gorkha soldiers draw around IRs 1,200 crore annually as salaries and pension from Indian government.

Some 25,000 Nepali citizens currently serve in the Indian Army and another 20,000 Gorkhas in Indian paramilitary and police forces. nepalnews.com