Pension Pangs

 Let me tell you a story today, IC36916 Col (TS) Erumbala Krishna Umashankar was commissioned in the Corps of Signals on 19 Mar 1977. A happy go lucky officer who like most of his colleagues in that era did not ever bother about personal documentation and barring the CC to bankers, did not look at the pay slip either. Discussing pay and allowances or money matters earned you the moniker of a "baniya" amongst friends. So he stayed all his life, lived  on his own terms, retired happily in 2008 and when the time came to meet his maker, he just did equally casually in 2017. This could be the story of any old veteran, but the saga actually begins now, his widow Mrs Suma Nambiar, while cleaning up the attic came across his PPO, where to her horror, she discovered that her late husband was receiving the pension of a Lt Col and not that of a Col, as he rightly should have been getting. She approached a friend of her husband's Col KPM Das, again a veteran Signaller. He asked her to dig out the complete correspondence so that a case can be initiated to get this minor issue addressed. Obviously, it appeared to be clerical error which was overlooked all these years and will be corrected once the documents are forwarded to the Army HQ for issuing the necessary corrections. So he presumed. 

But bureaucracy in any organisation is not that simple, they need to go by the rules. The officer had retired on 31 Jan 2008. A lot of water had flowed under every bridge in these 9 odd years, we had moved on to digital age big time with Part II orders  (the casualty publication of any occurrence, birth, death, promotion, earning a qualification etc) themselves having shunned the physical aspect, i.e. no more paper, HRMS (Human Resource Management System) was in vogue now. Army HQ observed that the Part II order for the late officer's promotion was incorrect, as the date of promotion should have been 16 Dec 2004 as per AVSC (Ajay Vikram Singh Committee) recommendations, where as the date mentioned in the Part II order was 16 Feb 2005. The letter was sent to the unit where the officer was serving at that time.   Interestingly, there were a number of letters correspondence from Army HQ with officer's rank mentioned as Col (TS) but  in his PPO his rank was Lt Col, so PCDA Pensions naturally released the pension as per the rank mentioned in the PPO. 

 In short, this was not as easy as it appeared. Col KPM Das, always a good samaritan, started chasing the file and asked me if I could be of any help. He was my CO in Bison Signals and has been my friend, philosopher and guide ever since. We all know that networking goes a long way in all walks of life, but more so in the Army. By this time almost six years had elapsed. The veteran's pension had moved to the SPARSH portal. I forwarded the bumph of the documents to my friend and course-mate Lt Gen Sree Hari, who is the current DG Manpower in the Army HQ.  The documents comprised letters from the MS Branch regarding his approval in the Promotion Board, letters to the PCDA(O) for his DSOP, ADG MP for his medical examination pre-retirement, and so on, even his retired officer's I card where his rank was mentioned as Col (TS). Having known Sree, for over  four decades, I was sure that he will not only help out, but ensure that it is done quick time. His staff diligently went through the complete set of documents and unearthed that the Part II order published for his promotion by his last unit was put under an observation. The subsequent amended Part II order was despatched to the Army HQ without the signature of the Officer Commanding. Now there was a twist in the tale, the unit Defence Standardisation Detachment Cordite Factory Campus Aruvankadu (TN) published an amended Part II order but the OC forgot to sign the document and despatched it. Later the unit  was disbanded. So which unit  will publish the amended Part II order that too of a retired deceased officer? 

As the first step, the officer's pension was shifted to SPARSH. The next step was the publication of Gazette Notification, which was to be undertaken by MS branch. The MS Branch observed that a fresh Part II order has to be published by MP5. A case was taken up with PS Dte for the sanction for publication of the casualty. ORO (Officers Record Office) was not authorised to publish Part II orders of retired officers, so a case was taken up with MISO for allotment of SUS Number for MP 5 to publish these Part II orders. It had taken almost six months to reach here, but the battle was still on. Finally the module for publication of Part II orders for veterans was tested on HRMS and the first  Part II to be published on this module was that of Col Umashankar and forwarded to MS Branch for the Draft Gazette Notification. Thereafter the file was processed to PCDA(O) for initiating the claim, which was then approved by PCDA(P) and finally the amended PPO was issued.

 Today I am so proud of this wonderful organisation and also of the officers in the hierarchy who have spared no effort to get the dues of a deceased officer released to his widow. Having been there, done that, we are ware that bigger the organisation, longer the time for the wheels to trudge, but they do turn finally, only if we persevere. The challenge was daunting as there were number of agencies involved, and the credit is due to the relentless efforts of all the officers who were involved. The only concern that I have is, imagine the plight of an unlettered widow of our jawans who God forbids lands up in a similar problem, there is no way that she would be able to get her dues. Here, the DG himself was personally monitoring the case since it was brought to his notice. We need to look into this aspect as to how can we help just anyone and everyone to seek redressals without having to get the senior hierarchy personally involved in each such case.I would also like to impress upon all the readers to be particular about documentation, as they say, it’s not done till the paper work is done. Please check  and recheck your PPOs lest we leave our families with similar challenges.

We are like Quick Gun Murugan when we crib against anything and everything in our organisation. For a change may I through this blog convey my sincere gratitude to the complete staff in the Army HQ headed by my friend Sree, hats off to their sincerity, diligence and perseverance. Keep up the good work guys and make us proud.