Part 2 – DISABLED INTO SILENCE: STORY OF THE DISABLED SOLDIERS

I, Col Sanjay Pande, retired on 09 Sep 2006 in SHAPE-1, the top medical category and top physical condition.

This is the Part-2 of the ongoing series of articles on ‘Disability Pension Industry’. I am amazed at the lack of knowledge and understanding of veterans on the subject. My first article focussed on the ‘Litigation’ and most missed the woods for trees.

Part 1 was DISABLED INTO SILENCE: STORY OF DISABILITY PENSION INDUSTRYhttps://colsanjaypande.com/disabled-into-silence-story-of-disability-pension-industry/

The Disability Pension Industry

I did not make any mention in Part 1 about the ‘disabled soldiers’ except that the ‘disabled’ were the ‘raw material’ for the ‘Disabled Pension Industry’. Part 1 was all about industry. Where there is cash, there is industry. Whether it is the greedy, serving or retired, Lt Generals and their equivalents in Navy and Air Force lobbying to get nominated on the Armed Forces Tribunal as Administrative Members or the Advocates, Lawyers and Government Counsels representing the disabled soldiers or Union of India in AFTs or High/Supreme Courts, they all form part of this industry. Wherever there is money, industry is created, and wherever there is cash, corruption follows. Does the image of Mahatma Gandhi on a currency note differentiate the honest and corrupt, or the serving or retired, armed forces members or their civilian counterparts or the uniform and civil clothes? Armed forces uniform and rank is used as a license for honesty. These people can do nothing wrong. The industry wears it with pride since it is the ideal cover for hiding true intentions. Think.

In this article:

PART-1 WHO WILL ANSWER?

Part 2: GENUINELY DISABLED: THE RAW MATERIAL

PART 3: SEPARATING THE ‘CHEATS’ FROM THE ‘GENUINELY DISABLED’

PART 4: ‘THE CHEAT DISABLED”: THE PIGGYBACK RIDERS

PART 5: GUIDE TO MEDICAL OFFICERS (MILITARY PENSIONS)

Always doubt the INTELLIGENCE, INTEGRITY, and INTENT of a person, who despite being in a position of complete knowledge of a subject, DECIDES TO KEEP QUIET. Those wearing uniform today and those who shed have much to explain.

Whenever you find a problem, even after being resolved, keeps coming up regularly, find the ‘beneficiary’ and you will know ‘who’ is keeping the problem alive.

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

― Frédéric Bastiat

PART-1 WHO WILL ANSWER?

Unanswered Questions

If a serving or retired Lt General does not speak, an instant check on his intelligence, integrity or intent needs to be carried out. The custodians of the military ethos need to answer for their silence. Which of the three ‘I’s is applicable? Are they answerable to the flag? Are they not perturbed that the Defence establishment gets tarnished on regular basis?

Is there a common policy for all three armed forces services with regard to the ‘Disability Pension’? Someone needs to answer the following questions:

Veterans

• All those drawing disability pensions are veterans, why has no veteran spoken about the ‘actual’ story of disabled soldiers?
• Why haven’t retired Chiefs and retired Lt Generals written extensively on the drawbacks of the system, the dichotomy, the policy gaps, the policy flaws and recommended to the Government ways to reduce litigation?
• Who feeds the social media that ‘Ministry of Defence’ is against disabled soldiers?

Armed Forces Tribunal and Supreme Court

• Why do the disabled soldiers approach courts?
• Why are disabled treated differently in law despite having same injuries?
• Why does a Supreme Court judgement not applied on all similar cases using the logic of ‘precedence’?
• Why should each case of similar nature reach Supreme Court?
• Why does the Union of India Counsel take 450 days plus just to respond to a petition filed in Supreme Court?

Ministry of Defence

• Where is Ministry of Defence involved in ‘troubling’ the disabled?
• Who is after the disabled within the ministry?
• Is the policy same and fair for all the disabled?
• DESW issues policy guidelines, directions and orders that benefit and favour disabled soldiers, who then in Service Headquarters takes a decision NOT to implement it?
• DGAFMS issues directions on percentages to be worked out to determine disability. Why do Service HQs ignore it?

Department of Military Affairs

• Department of Military Affairs can, with one stroke, give 100% satisfaction to the 90% genuinely disabled only if they know about the eco-system of Disability Pension Industry. Do they know?
• Policy letter covering 100% disabilities for complete manpower is neither available nor made. Result is large number of letters are quoted to deny rightful claim of a disabled soldier. Everything happens in service headquarters. Who has control?
• Hundreds of crores of recovery can be made from the 10% ‘cheat-disabled’ who have misused the rules to carry out huge siphoning of funds which is ‘embezzlement’?
• Is Department of Military Affairs and the Chief of Defence Staff silent since large number of Retired Generals, Lt Generals, Major Generals and Brigadiers are drawing disability pension?
• Will Department of Military Affairs put this right?

The Three Service HQs

• Where is Army HQ involved in supporting or troubling the disabled?
• Where is Air Force HQ involved in supporting or troubling the disabled?
• Where is Naval HQ involved in supporting or troubling the disabled?
• Does each service HQ have a comprehensive policy letter on handling of  disability cases?
• Are Headquarters of Army, Navy and Air Force silent since large number of Retired Generals, Lt Generals, Major Generals and Brigadiers and their equivalents in Navy and Air Force are involved in getting fake disability pension. Is the contention correct?
• Are these three headquarters implementing directions received from Secretary, Department of Ex Servicemen Welfare or DGAFMS?
• Why are people with no qualifications or standing part of decision making?

Part 2: GENUINELY DISABLED: THE RAW MATERIAL

I call the ‘disabled’ as the “Raw Material’ of Disabled Pension Industry. Do you know who these disabled are? Have their issues ever been told to you? Are you aware that more than 90% disabled are GENUINE? Do you know that 10% disabled are cheats? Do you know that NONE of these 10% cheat ‘disabled’ have any case filed in Armed Forces Tribunals? Do you know the people who file cases in AFTs have been struggling from years to get their due? Who is denying them their right to get disability pension? Do you think nobody knows crux issues?

A soldier gets disabled any time after he steps inside a training centre and throughout his career. There is an elaborate system in place to take care of him post retirement. The entire system is played with by the ‘abled’ to let the cheats enter the system. The elaborate system created for the genuinely disabled is modified by getting non-players in the seats that matter and the policies are changed at will. The industry functions within these organisations and change the policies and the systems.

Why do they go to Courts?

The ’raw material’ of this industry are the disabled. The disabled approach the Armed Forces Tribunal for the following reasons:

• Denied disability pension since it is not authorised to them for example, authorised to recruits but not to officer cadets.
• When the case is filed in courts and courts give favourable decision, the Government Counsels challenge the verdict forcing these disabled to appeal. This carries on till Supreme Court.
• Supreme Court orders are not implemented forcing contempt petition to be filed.
• Faulty policy where disability pension is allowed to one set of soldiers (officers+men) while denied to second set of soldiers. This happens due to flawed policy for example Permanent Commission officers who proceed on voluntary retirement before end of contractual period are denied where as Non-Regular officers get the pension.
• The cases are filed in AFT and same process as before is followed up to Supreme Court as before.
• Regular soldiers who complete service in low medical category, upon retirement find that they are not being paid disability pension. They go to court.
• Regular soldiers who are granted a particular percentage of disability pension find, upon retirement that the percentage has been changed and they either get nothing or get much less than permitted.
• Supreme Court gives a clear order on a case in favour of the disabled, the case can be referred to as precedence by any court and orders passed for all such similar cases coming up to AFT. It does not happen. The advocates do not use the Supreme Court Orders and force each applicant with similar case to file fresh case in AFT and take then right up top Supreme Court.
• DESW (under MoD) gives unambiguous orders to DGAFMS and the three service headquarters to implement. The incumbents in the three service HQs decide to ignore and defy DESW orders.
• DGAFMS (under MoD) issues Guidelines for Medical Officers to standardise disability percentages for each type of injury or ailment and help complete medical staff of three services to have similar standards for all. Disabled go to court since AHQ decides to change the percentages without any authority.

Apathy Rules in the Uniformed and the Veterans

The genuinely disabled suffer. They suffer during service, and they suffer beyond it. They struggle. No one tells their story. How does one become disabled? How does his struggle with life impact him/her? How does he struggle to get is dues? And how, despite knowing the facts, the HQ Integrated Defence Staff, Army HQ, Airforce HQ, and the Naval HQs do not address the troubles of the disabled. Who are the people in these headquarters who do not respond despite knowing each nuance? Is it deliberate? Is intelligence, intent or integrity playing its role? The core problem is ‘awareness’. Most have no knowledge, those who have conveniently bypass it and the result is the industry thrives. The people at the helm are aware in totality and knowingly or unknowingly become part of the industry.

PART 3: SEPARATING THE ‘CHEATS’ FROM THE ‘GENUINELY DISABLED’

The forces have very simple solutions to separate the grain from chaff. They do not do it since results are already known. Is it possible to separate? Yes, it is. Analyse 100% cases in last 30 years of 100% officers, soldiers and recruits who did not retire/complete terms of engagement/did not complete training in SHAPE-1 (top or peak physical condition). These people suffered disabilities that did not permit them to complete full service.

The data analysis will throw up results that are already known. The answers will be on screen ONLY if there is a will to resolve the problem. Focus on the following:

• Gather complete data on medically downgraded soldiers for last 30 years and complete data from Armed Forces Tribunal since its establishment.
• Divide complete list of downgraded medical categories in two, ‘Brigadiers and Above’ and ‘Colonels and Below’ including recruits. For Brigadiers and above, include all people who have suffered physical casualty in or below the rank of Colonel in the list of ‘Colonels and Below’.
• More than 80-85% of downgrading cases for ‘Colonels and Below’ will be found to be having physical disabilities.
• More than 99% disabilities of ‘Brigadiers and Above’ will be found to be non-physical.
• Less than 1% cases in Armed Forces Tribunal are filed by Brigadiers and Above.
• 99% cases in Armed Forces Tribunals are filed by Colonels and Below.
• All cases of Colonels and below be divided into ‘under training’ and ‘post-training’. Check if similar policy is applicable to all regardless of whether the person is a recruit or an officer cadet. Should the policy not be the same for all under training?
• Divide ‘Post Training’ into Officers and Men. For Officers check if same policy is applicable to officers commissioned from any academy. NDA, IMA, OTA, ACC, Cadet Training Wing, RMOs etc. Each of these need to be covered under a standard policy. Are they? As on date they are not.
• The Jawan’s under ‘Post Training’ be covered under same policy.
• Go deeper into the officers’ injuries to find anomalies like a permanent commissioned officer who applies for release before the contractual period must fight for the disability pension.
• Service Element of Disability / War Injury for which pension is granted to Non-Regular Officers on Voluntary Retirement, counting their full service rendered but the same is not applicable for Permanent Commission officers.
• Data for similar types of injuries suffered by Colonels and Below, regardless of terrain be analysed. The AFT cases speak a lot.
• Get data on state of Family Pension on death of the disabled Armed Forces Personnel after retirement. Zero support is provided to Disabled Veterans Family of ‘Disabled Non Regular Commissioned Officer on his death post retirement but family of Disabled Permanent Commissioned Officer with same disability is granted if service rendered was more than 20 years, which means ‘zero support is provided’ to family if he dies before rendering 20 years of service.
• A Short Service Commissioned Officer and a Permanent Service Commission Officer fight on border shoulder to shoulder and they form the same class, and no distinction can be made.
• Can micro-classification be made between a permanent and a non-regular short service commissioned officer?
• When Raksha Mantri’s Committee of Experts on Subject Matter, which has been accepted by Raksha Mantri, recommends that ‘Service Element be released to all those individuals who are released with an attributable / aggravated disability, irrespective of the manner of exit / release from service since there is no minimum qualifying service required for earning this element. Why do service HQs ignore this?
• The Raksha Mantri’s Committee of Experts on Subject Matter further mentions “All appeals filed on the subject may be immediately withdrawn”. This has not been implemented.

‘Colonels and Below’

Cadet or a recruit start their journey at 17/18 years of age. A JCO retires at 28 years’ service, i.e., 45 years of age. A cadet becomes a colonel before completing 20 years of service i.e., by 40 years of age. They are young and the main workforce of Army. A colonel retires at 54 years of age, if not promoted, he remains a Colonel from 40 yrs. age till 54 years age. More than 90% of army is in units, with troops, on ground and exposed to injury below 45 years of age. These injuries may be battle casualties, accidents, physical injuries or in short, all the people in this age bracket who get medically downgraded are mostly (80-85%) ‘physical injury’ related. The balance are medical conditions related to organs, heart etc. related. Most never have a chance to fake disabilities since they are under tight watch. These are genuinely disabled.

‘Brigadiers and Above’

A Subedar Major retires at 30 years of service or say at 47-48 years of age. Their promotion criteria are so strict that unless a battle casualty, they do not get promotions. That leaves only officers. A person from Combat Arms becomes a Brigadier at approx. 26-27 years service or 47-48 years of age. He has no activity in field with troops. The Combat Arms Brigadiers visit units in vehicles and rarely on foot. The Services Brigadiers is a 100% sedentary job. All Major Generals, Lt Generals and Generals have sedentary jobs. Official movement on feet rarely crosses half a km or a kilometre. From 47-48 years of age till retirement of a Brigadier at 56 years, a Major General and Lt General at 58 years and a General at 60, there is no physical exposure to injuries.

Unless a Brigadier and above has carried an injury from his Colonel and earlier days, they are all fit. Each rank has a minimum medical criterion, and they fulfil it to get the next rank. There is a time they know that they will get no further promotions. Last 10-12 years of Brigadiers to Generals, hence, gives lot of opportunity to study rules. They are mostly posted to different headquarters and being in position of influence, extend their acquaintances beyond the usual.

PART 4: ‘THE CHEAT DISABLED”: THE PIGGYBACK RIDERS

Who are these ‘cheat’ disabled? They can be anyone in the system from a regular soldier or a commissioned officer to the Generals. By tradition, Generals want to be considered above suspicion of being a ‘cheat’ disabled which is fair and hence they should be open to enquiries. The age group 47 to 60 is most likely to misuse the rules and everyone in this age group needs to be seen with suspicion. No free passes of integrity need to be extended.

It is very important to know the type and onset of disability.

• When was the onset?
• When was it reported?
• How was the disease not a hinderance to promotions?
• When was it reported first?
• On what designation was the person when reporting?
• Where was the medical board carried out?
• What was the chain of command of the medical officers doing the board?
• For how long was the person in the medical category?
• At what rank was disability given? By whom? Approved by whom?
• Was this disability ever challenged?

The questions are endless and a person with lower than average intelligence can make out the cheats. The biggest opportunity, position and access is to Brigadiers and above who did not have any medical category on the day they assumed the rank. Jawans are intelligent and know that ‘category’ gets then disability pension. Hence, they need to be investigated too. This is a big time industry.

These piggyback riders ride on the genuinely disabled.

PART 5: GUIDE TO MEDICAL OFFICERS (MILITARY PENSIONS)

Guide To Medical Officers (Military Pensions)

One of the finest document has been made by the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services called AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER VI & VII  GUIDE TO MEDICAL OFFICERS (MILITARY PENSIONS) 2008. It is a ‘must read’ document available online at

http://www.desw.gov.in/sites/default/files/GMO-Amendment-to-Chap-VI-&-VII-2008.pdf

This is a 91 page amendment to the original document which gives guidelines to the doctors on disability pensions to be granted on each type of injury. This is one of the finest contributions of Ministry of Defence through the Director General of Armed Forces to all the three services to standardise the disability pensions.

This publication is intended as a general guide for assessment of individual disabilities and their causal relationship to military service. In this publication the amendments to chapters VI and VII of the Guide to Medical officers Military Pensions (2002) has been incorporated. The two chapters have been revised with a view to include the recent advances in medical sciences so that the causal relationship of other relevant factors is brought up to date in accordance with the latest scientific opinions.

This has also been done taking into consideration the Hon’ble Delhi High Court Order of Jun 2006 which had directed a High level committee to look into the disability pension disputes and reform the procedure. The complete revised Guide will be published when the Entitlement Rules amendments are completed by the Ministry of Defence. The contents of the manual reflect the close cooperation between Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance (Defence) and concerned officers of my directorate. With such a document in place there shouldn’t be any problem, right? There is. Army does not follow it.

Procedure in Army

This guideline is for the Medical Officers but policies are laid down by Service Headquarters.  Adjutant General of Indian Army, the custodian of everything related to disability pensions makes policies. They have their own policies. Army follows the policies laid down by the AGs office. Read the following:

• Whenever in service a soldier is required to be medically examined for whatever reason, he is examined by a Medical Board of Officers at the dependant Military Hospital. The Board is required to check his condition and based on GUIDE TO MEDICAL OFFICERS (MILITARY PENSIONS), the disability is required to be written in his documents and the percentage is required to be mentioned.

• The first time such a board convenes a form, AFMSF-15 is filled up. This form becomes the basis for that particular medical condition till the time the soldier is in service.

• Each year the soldier is required to report to the Military Hospital for the doctors to carry our review of his condition. The doctors can upgrade him, retain him in same category or downgrade him. The document to be referred to is the AFMS-15. The ‘Review Medical Board’ is carried out and a form number AFNSF-15A is filled. This is referred to as ‘recategorization’.

• Say, a soldier gets downgraded in medical category for the first time in 2010. He will have the AFMSF-15 filled in giving complete detail of the physical condition and the disability mentioned in percentage as read fromGuide To Medical Officers (Military Pensions) since it has direct effect on pension.

• If the soldier retires in 2021, he will have in his file one AFMSF-15 of 2010, ten AFMSF-15A for each year from 2011 to 2020 and now he enters his final year of service in 2021.

• In 2021, he is required to carry our ‘Release Medical Board’(RMB) which is the culmination of his medical condition. The Board considers 11 reports from 2010 to 2020 and finalises the Release Medical Board giving the disability percentage using Guide To Medical Officers (Military Pensions).

• Eleven different boards, over 11 years have examined the soldier and recommended the disability percentage.

• The RMB has an easy task, review 11 reports, carry out all tests they deem fit and write the percentage. There is no scope for manipulation.

What Actually Happens?

What actually happens is so different. The policies flow down from AGs Branch. In almost every case the following happens:

• We take the case of same soldier. The soldier gets downgraded in medical category for the first time in 2010. He will have the AFMSF-15 filled in giving complete detail of the physical condition. No disability pension is mentioned as required to be written using Guide To Medical Officers (Military Pensions). Instead for the disability all Medical Boards write “To be decided at the time of discharge or release”.

• This policy simply rubbishes all medical boards who have physically seen and tested the soldier. The soldier has no idea of his disability condition. For 11 years the soldier must get recategorized and each year the comment is “To be decided at the time of discharge or release”.

• The soldier finally comes up for Release Medical Board in 2021 with 11 yearly reports which have no mention of disability. A new term enters the RMB Proceedings “Non Attributable-Non Aggravated”, a term that is neither explained to nor understood by the soldier.  He has no idea why this was not written even once in 11 years.

• The Release Medical Board has no ability, capability, authority or information to ‘upgrade’ the soldiers medical condition but conclusively mentions “Recommended to be released in Medical Category xxx with xxx% of Disability Pension”.

• The Guide To Medical Officers (Military Pensions) is thrown to winds and percentage is written in percentages not contained in the book. It is well known that disability of less than 20% is treated as zero, so a 20% disabled gets 20% of pension as disability but a 19% disabled gets zero.

• The Boards frequently write 18% or 19% Disability. From where does this expertise come to judge in one or two percent? Unless there is a written policy of word of mouth directions, such ridiculous percentages cannot be written.

• The soldier does not get copy of his own medical condition. He has no idea what has transpired in the Board. He goes on pension within few months since Release Medical Board is done for release from service.

• His Medical Board Proceedings are sent up to the C

• With Zero knowledge he goes home. He is a veteran. He has no idea on disability pension till he gets the first pension in account and his Pension Paying Order after few months of retirement.

• That the time he is satisfied or shocked. If shocked his journey towards Armed Forces Tribunal Commences. The RAW MATERIAL FOR “DISABILITY PENSION INDUSTRY” is “procured”.

State of Officers (Brigadiers and Below) : Release Medical Board

• This goes in the realm of ‘weird’.

• Before retirement, officers have the same procedure up to ‘Release Medical Board’ as for a jawan or a JCO. Once the RMB is finalised it moves up the medical chain up to Command Headquarters level from where it is sent to MP-5, which is under Adjutant Generals Branch of Army HQ.

• As per correct procedure, the Release Medical Board Proceeding and other documents are required to be sent to PCDA (Pensions) directly and the case closed. The disability pension commences thereafter. Does it happen that way?

• The AG Branch policy now says that 100% RMB documents of officers will be sent to by the MP-5 to PS Directorate under Adjutant Generals Branch in Army HQ. Why?

• The PS Directorate sends the documents of Brigadiers and below to Integrated Financial Advisor (Army). The Integrated Financial Advisor (Army) with zero knowledge, competence and expertise in medical condition or service is required to approve the disability pension percentage written in the Release Medical Board. Why?

• IFAs are smart and don’t take risks. They are under Ministry of Finance seconded to Ministry of Defence and approach the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) which is under the Ministry of Defence, to ‘advise’. Why? There is no such procedure but it is done.

• The Defence and approach the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) is prompt and sends a tired medical officer to ‘assist’ the IFA. They arbitrarily reject, increase, decrease and amend percentages of disability recommended in the RMB. There is no justification given.

• At times the representative of Defence and approach the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) does not come. The IFA then carries out changes and sends the documents back to PS Directorate.

• PS Directorate is smart and plays safe. Once they find percentages changed, they make a note of who changed it, DGAFMS or IFA.

• The documents go back to MP-5 from where they go to PCDA(Pensions). The pension commences and the officer is either happy or shocked. If shocked, he starts his journey towards Armed Forces Tribunal. The fresh raw material for the ‘Disability Pension Industry”.

State of Officers (Major Generals, Lt Generals and Generals) : Release Medical Board

• This goes in the realm of ‘hilarious’.

• Once they have achieved their last rank, which is very easy to know, their ailments start emerging. Ailments that allow within rules to get disability pension. They are in their last 3 or 4 years of service hence lot of spare time.

• They start their trips to hospitals and most of the times, due to seniority the hospitals send staff at home. A visit to specialist is all that is required.

• They finally achieve the required, a downgraded medical category and in the last year of retirement their ‘Release Medical Board’ is done. Once the RMB is finalised it moves up the medical chain up to Command Headquarters level from where it is sent to MP-5, which is under Adjutant Generals Branch of Army HQ.

• A recently introduced policy requires all disability pension cases of Major Generals and above to be put up to the Adjutant General for approval. A Lt General approves RMBs of Lt Generals and Major Generals. 33-35 years of togetherness in Army and most know all fellow officers in these ranks.

• Approval is fast.

• Documents go to Integrated Financial Advisor (Army) who enjoys similar equivalent rank. The Integrated Financial Advisor (Army) simply returns it to PS Directorate after approval. If DGAFMS rep is present, he respects the rank.

• The documents go back to MP-5 from where they go to PCDA(Pensions). The pension commences and the exact percentage of disability pension is granted. Never is there a requirement to go to Armed Forces Tribunal. All legal. All within rules. All within policies. So where is the problem?

•  The officer is always happy.

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

― Frédéric Bastiat

PART 6: GUIDE TO MEDICAL OFFICERS : DEFECTIVE HEARING

Few years back India came to know about disability of serving officers when one case hit the media. The Defective Hearing Case. Below is a reproduction of what GUIDE TO MEDICAL OFFICERS (MILITARY PENSIONS) 2008 says about it.

Must read paragraph 20 on page 73.

Assessment should be based on the grade attained using both ears together, the percentage assessment appropriate to the grade thus attained is given below :

——————————————————————

Grade Degree of hearing attained Assessment for both ears used together

——————————————————————

1. Total deafness 100%

2. Shout not beyond 3 feet 80%

3. Conversational voice not over 1 Foot 60%

4. Conversational voice not over 3 Feet 40%

6. Conversational voice not over 10 Feet

(a) Unilateral total deafness 40%

(b) Otherwise 20%

——————————————————————

A case in which the right ear attained grade 4, the left ear grade 2 should be assessed as follows :

Disability for grade 4 40%

Disability for grade 2 80%

 ————

Total mean disability (40 + 80)/2 = 60%

All an officer has to do is report to the Military Hospital and complain loss of hearing. In few months get 50-75% disability pension. Say a Lt General gets Rs 1,00,000 (Rs 1 lacs) as pension and plus a 60% disability, he takes home Rs 1,50,000 (Rs 1.5 lacs) for LIFE. This is very rough back-of-the-envelope calculation. The documents will just go to the Adjutant General.

Next Article soon on “Drawing the canvas of the eco-system of the Disability Pension Industry.”