Gratuity & IIT courses to draw youth to forces

NEW DELHI: Seeking to make armed forces more attractive to attract the youth via the Short Service Commission (SSC), the 7th Pay Commission on Thursday recommended that they be paid gratuity and entitled to a fully-funded one-year course at a premier institute of higher learning like IITs and IIMs for a good placement after leaving the forces.

Besides, making provisions of maximum risk and hardship allowance to Army personnel posted at Siachen (the world's highest battle-field), giving a good jump to entry level pay and tightening norms of disability pension so that the retiring officers could not fake their disability to claim higher pension are other key features of the panel's recommendations for the defence personnel.

In a bid to incentivise the SSC, the Commission recommended that officers be allowed to exit the Armed Forces at any point in time between 7 and 10 years of service, with a terminal gratuity equivalent of 10.5 months of reckonable emoluments.

"They will further be entitled to a fully-funded one-year Executive Programme or a M Tech programme at a premier institute," it said.

Defence sources said even though the SSC was brought in to attract young blood, it has not achieved the desired objective. "Our aim was to have about 1 general officer against 4.1 SSC officers but it is almost the other way around. The recommendations will incentivise those wanting to join the SSC since they will get gratuity like a one-time pension.

"Moreover, they can easily undertake a higher course at government expenditure to acquire any other skill that will help them in their civilian life," a source said.

Talking about the Siachen allowance, the Pay Commission proposed Rs 31,500 as allowance to officers from the present Rs 21,000 and Rs 21,000 to JCOs and other ranks from the current 14,000.

The Commission also recommended a revised formulation for lateral entry/resettlement of defence personnel which keeps in view the specific requirements of organisations to which such personnel will be absorbed.

For lateral entry into central paramilitary forces, an attractive severance package has been recommended. The Commission also said the Military Service Pay, which is a compensation for the various aspects of military service, will be admissible to the defence forces personnel only.

"As before, Military Service Pay will be payable to all ranks up to and inclusive of brigadiers and their equivalents," it said. While at present, service officers get Rs 6,000 as MSP, the proposed is Rs 15,500.

Similarly, while nursing officers get Rs 4,200 as MSP, the Commission has proposed Rs 10,800. While for JCO/OR, it is Rs 2000, the recommended is Rs 5,200.

As far as salary of the personnel is concerned, the entry level personnel in the defence forces has been fixed in the Defence Pay Matrix at Rs 21,700 per month as against the present basic salary of Rs 8460 per month.

If one wants to calculate salary of defence personnel as per the seventh pay panel recommendation, the current salary has to be multiplied by 2.57 to 2.78 for different ranks to arrive at the new proposed salary. Accordingly, the chiefs of defence services will get fixed basic salary of Rs 2.50 lakh per month - at par with the new recommended salary of the cabinet secretary.