The army is a passion, not a profession for they never lower their guard, in peace or war. And that explains why it is written on their graves, “When you go home tell them of us, we gave our today for your tomorrow”. A grateful nation never ignores the sacrifices made by them and their families.

National security depends on the quality and training of soldiers that has deteriorated in the past two decades because of shabby treatment meted out to soldiers by bureaucrats.

On an average, soldiers retire in the age group of 44 to 54 years, following which they live on meager pensions. The civilian counterparts, on the other hand, lead an easy life retiring at 60 with the tag of senior citizens.

The short-sighted policies of the Centre since 1984 have resulted in an acute shortage of officers, as quality candidates are now reluctant to come forward and join the armed forces.

With the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission not implemented yet, a number of officers have been forced to file petitions in high courts, seeking Rank Pay benefits.

The poor policies of the Central Pay Commission create a situation, wherein a Major General retiring before January 1, 1996, receives lesser pension than a Colonel retiring a decade later.

And with every pay commission, the disparity only increases.

As a solution, the pensioners of the armed forces have proposed the ‘One Rank One Pension’ formula, where soldiers on the same rank receive the same pension, irrespective of their retirement date.

Before the Lok Sabha elections, the UPA had appointed the Chandrashekhar Committee to look into the anomaly.

During the presentation of the Budget on July 6, the government announced that the Chandrashekhar Committee has submitted its report and recommended a ‘considerable improvement’ in the pension.

This “ambiguous” announcement has created a state of utter confusion as we never asked for ‘considerable improvement’, but wanted parity.

In recognition of the services rendered by the veterans, the concept of ‘One Rank One Pension’ should be implemented without any delay.