Implemented Without Delay: MP Rakeev Chandrasekhar Urges Defence Minister Arun Jaitley

Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar wrote to the Defence Minister regarding the Government’s order dated 29 June 2017 on implementation of orders of Hon’ble Courts/AFT’s in Neither Attributable to Nor Aggravated (NANA) by service cases.

In his letter to the Defence Minister he welcomed the move and the landmark step taken by the Narendra Modi Government that will benefit thousands of soldiers who have suffered disability died because of a disability while in service.

“The Committee of Experts submitted its report in November 2015 with 75 recommendations and despite the then Raksha Mantri giving his go ahead for implementing the recommendations in August 2016, there has been no action taken on its implementation till date.” MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.

Recalling the DESW Memo of 02 January 2014, which stated the department would appeal automatically in six categories of disability , Chandrasekhar said he had taken up the matter strongly with then Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Shri A K Antony and after his interventions, the Minister had withdrawn the instructions.

Despite the former Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Shri. Manohar Parrikar decision in January 2015, not to pursue nearly 4,000 disability pension cases pending against the Ministry of Defence in courts, in April 2016 new instructions were issued by the DESW to again automatically file appeals in all cases pertaining to disability pensions and benefits, Chandrasekhar wrote in his letter to the Defence Minister.

“I had urged the then Raksha Mantri to put in place a system of audits to ensure genuine cases of disabled soldiers and their families do not suffer long painful legal battles” Rajeev said.

PM Modi in the past had expressed the need to minimise litigation, stop frivolous appeals and to strengthen the Armed Forces Tribunals which had led to the constitution of the Raksha Mantri’s Committee of Experts for reduction of litigation in the Ministry of Defence and strengthening of mechanisms of redressal of grievances in July 2015.