Reverse disability pension cut, Kejriwal tells PM Modi

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to roll back the cut in armed forces disability pension and instead hike it.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader also asked Modi to announce Rs 1-crore financial assistance to the families of soldiers, who die while serving the country. 

While hailing Modi for the Army’s surgical strikes on Pakistani territory, Kejriwal, in a letter to the Prime Minister, pointed out the cut in disability pension for soldiers announced by the Defence Ministry recently.

He said soldiers had until now received disability pension equal to their last drawn salary for 100 per cent disability. “But the recent notification turned it into a slab system retrospectively from January 1, 2016, which will result in a heavy financial loss to the soldiers,” Kejriwal said.

He requested the PM to increase the disability pension instead of slashing it. The government move, he said, had hit the morale of the soldiers.  The Defence Ministry has asked the Anomaly Committee of the 7th Pay Commission to continue with the percentage-based system for calculating disability pensions for the armed forces.

He requested Modi to emulate the AAP government in Delhi and frame a policy to give Rs 1-crore assistance to the families of soldiers who lay down their lives in the line of duty.  “I request you to formulate a similar policy so that every martyr soldier's family receives Rs 1 crore from the central government,” he said. Kejriwal also asked Modi to “fully implement” the OROP scheme.

“I hope you will show the same will power to ensure that no financial injustice is done to our soldiers that you showed while avenging the attack on our soldiers,” Kejriwal added.