Don't Sleep Run Fast!
The government has agreed to restore 70 per cent "pensionary weightage" to jawans, even as Defence chiefs on Thursday intensified efforts to get "anomalies" in the 6th Pay Commission notification removed.
"The government has given in principle approval to reverting to the 70 per cent pensionary weightage, as demanded by the Services, overruling the 50 per cent recommended by the Central Pay Commission (CPC), providing much-needed relief just before this Diwali," top Defence Ministry sources told reporters here.
Espousing their cause, the Services chiefs today apprised Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar and officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on the issues.
Earlier, jawans used to get 70 per cent of their last drawn pay as pension calculated on the basis of their 10-month average salary before retirement.
Under the CPC notification, the jawans, who form the backbone of the Armed Forces but retire at a relatively young age, are to be provided with the option of lateral entry in to the Central police forces and paramilitary and in return, they would get reduced "pensionary weightage" of 50 per cent.
In order to resolve this issue, Defence Minister A K Antony had written a strong letter to both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, particularly batting for the jawan's pensionary benefits.
While we awaited the pay commission bounty
The IAS got there first
and now, President Aunty
We have no choice but to be blunt
We are third class citizens,
though manning the front
The bureaucrats who decide things for us
Have truly shown their animus
And we who defend our dear nation
Have again been shown our lower station.
When the seventh pay commission comes around
We will no doubt lose more ground
Then Colonels would equal civilian clerks
In salary, status and other perks
Generals will wait on worn out chairs
Outside IAS Officers' lairs.
A once proud service is now so degraded
That though their uniforms still be braided
They are demoralised and wait to retire
And then take up their pens to fire
At those they served all their life
In times of peace and in times of strife.
The lesson from this, our children we tell
Is that, if in life you want to do well
And this, I am sure, every soldier endorses
Do not ever join the forces.
Just become a doctor or a pleader
Perhaps, even better, a political leader
Or an IAS officer, with his red light
Why face the enemy, why risk a fight
When the nation you guard
does not value you much
And treats you merely like a handy crutch
To support the government in civil disorder
Or when the enemy threatens the border
But when the time comes to share the pie
They get all antsy and ask - why???
So Madam President, hear us out
A change is going to come about
And we, the most courageous of all
Will soon be replaced by the petty and small
Alas, your government would be squarely to blame
For this avoidable national shame.
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