Less than a week after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi batted for ex-servicemen favouring their demand for ‘one rank, one pension’, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday announced that the government had accepted the principle for the defence forces.
While presenting the Vote-on-Account in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Chidambaram allocated Rs.500 crore for the fund, a decision that is likely to benefit about 24 lakh retired armed forces personnel. “This decision will be implemented prospectively from the financial year 2014-15,” he said.
One rank, one pension basically means that soldiers of the same rank and the same length of service get the same pension, irrespective of their retirement date.
