Hope never dies. Even at 11,200 feet, where the biggest danger is not the enemy bunker on the opposite ridge but the heavy snow and numbing cold, soldiers are hoping for a better deal from the pay commission.

While the top military brass in Delhi is lobbying hard to fix “anomalies” in the pay panel report, what has hit soldiers on the front the hardest is the recommendation pertaining to special allowances and the new concept of Military Service Pay (MSP).

It takes a freezing seven-day march through deep snow to reach this border outpost on the line of control when roads are blocked but news travels much faster. Soldiers, who have been having detailed discussions about the pay panel recommendations for the past week, are disappointed with the pay panel suggestion of a common MSP of Rs 1,000 for all Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR).

The biggest question mark is on how will the sacrosanct ‘seniority’ of a soldier be rewarded with an allowance that is similar for all ranks and does not vary with years of service.

This, the army says, is an example in case for its demand for a permanent armed forces representative in the pay panel who will ensure a martial touch to the recommendations. To address the MSP issue, the defence forces have now drawn up a joint memorandum for the amount for soldiers by pegging it as a percentage of the basic pay.

At the LoC, the maximum effort is spent just on the struggle to survive. Even the basic requirement of obtaining potable water takes half a day’s of hard labour—the never ending snow has to be dug out, melted and the water then boiled. A 40 km march to base camp lasts for seven days—most of the walking is done in pitch darkness after 2 am after the snow has firmed up and the chances of avalanches reduce.

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