New Delhi: With a large number of officers
and jawans approaching the Armed Forces Tribunal with pension-
related grievances and complaints, Government today said it
was working towards improving the situation.
Defence Minister A K Antony said in comparison with
the civil pension structure, defence pension was "very
complex" and a large number of complaints and grievances were
there.
"There are so many instances of personnel-below
officer ranks and very senior officers approaching the Armed
Forces Tribunal against these grievances... this is not a
happy situation," the Minister said while addressing the
foundation day celebrations of the Department of Defence
Accounts.
The Defence Minister said there was a need to further
improve the situation and Government was working towards it.
"In last few years, the DAD has improved the system
drastically and there are lesser number of complaints now but
there is a scope of further improvement. A large number of
ex-servicemen are approaching the Tribunal but this doesn`t
mean the things are bad," he added.
Earlier in the day, Antony launched three DAD websites
named Project Suvigya, Project Aashraya and Project Sankalan.
The websites have been created by the department for
helping defence pensioners to know about their pensions and
addressing their grievances related to it.
Under the Project Suvigya, pensioners would be able
to know about their pension entitlements online and with
project Aashraya, it would be possible for a pensioner to log
into his pension account from anywhere in the world, DAD
officials said here.
Project Sankalan would facilitate dissemination of
various orders, instructions and manuals electronically and
would also help in reducing paper consumption in the
department, they added.
-PTI
