Clinging to technicalities, the Chhattisgarh government is refusing extraordinary pension to families of a section of security personnel who had laid down their lives fighting Maoist rebels. The government is arguing that they are not eligible for it as they joined service after the new defined contribution pension scheme for employees recruited since January 2004 came into existence.

The government stand has put the police department in fix. For long the department has been struggling to keep up the morale of its forces in the wake of incidents of Naxalite violence and high police causalities in more than a dozen out of the state’s 18 districts.

The families of those who joined the force before January 2004 are entitled for an extraordinary monthly pension — equivalents to the last pay drawn — and medical benefits if the police personnel is killed. In contrast, families of those who joined after the scheme came into existence, get only a meagre one-time amount, comprising the personnel’s own contribution during his short service, and a matching amount from the government in the event of death.

“Both categories of security personnel killed while fighting the Naxalites are undisputedly martyrs. Is it not discriminatory to deny death benefits to the recruits of 2004 onwards, just because they are covered under a new scheme?” asked a senior police officer serving in the Naxal belt. “As far as extraordinary pension to the families of those killed in action are concerned, the new scheme has turned out to be inferior to the previous GPF scheme,” he pointed out.

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