In a gesture to honour gallantry medal winners of the Armed Forces, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government has decided to double the allowance amount. The recipients will get the benefits retrospectively from August this year. The last such revision of allowances took place in 2012.
This is the second important decision the ministry of defence has taken in a fortnight. In November, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had given her approval to amend the draconian Army rule of denying benefits to widow of a gallantry awardee if she remarries anyone other than her deceased husband's brother. After receiving representations from various quarters to remove the condition of the widow’s remarriage with the late husband’s brother for continuation of the monetary allowance, the defence minister decided to get rid of this age old law.
The latest directive issued earlier this week (December 4) will now see the highest gallantry medal—Param Vir Chakra— winner in war getting Rs 20,000 per month from the present Rs 10,000. Similarly, Ashok Chakra—the highest peacetime gallantry medal—awardees will now be entitled Rs 12,000 from the current Rs 6,000.
The second highest war time medal—Maha Vir Chakra—will now carry a monetary allowance of Rs 10,000 from Rs 5,000, Kirti Chakra Rs 9,000 from Rs 4,500, Vir Chakra Rs 7,000 from Rs 3,500 and Shaurya Chakra Rs 6,000 from Rs 3,000. Similarly, the gallantry medal for Army—Sena Medal—will have an allowance of Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,000 and similar changes have been made for for Vayu Sena Medal (IAF) and Nau Sena Medal(Navy), officials said on Wednesday.
"The enhancement is for the recipients of post-independence gallantry award, pre-independence gallantry award and the monetary allowance attached to ‘Jangi Inam’ (a pre-independence gallantry award)," stated the notification.
According to the notification issued by the government, the widow of the medal winner will get this allowance till her death. In case the award was conferred posthumously to a bachelor, his mother or father will receive the allowance. If the awardee was a widower, his son will get the allowance till the age of 18 or unmarried daughter as the case may be, they said.
Meanwhile, Sitharaman on Wednesday discussed with the officials the issue of cap on educational allowance for children of martyrs. This cap, promulgated as per the 7thPay Commission recommendations, came into force since July this year, leading to disquiet among the Services. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh criticised the cap and urged the government to remove the ceiling of Rs 10,000.
Prior to the July order, there was no ceiling on the government funding of the education of children till their graduation, including MBBS and B. Tech. The government has been footing the education bill since 1971. Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee—the senior most military officer of the forces— Admiral Sunil Lanba wrote a letter to the defence ministry on Tuesday urging the government to remove the cap. Apprised of the sensitivities attached to the issue, Sitharaman sought more details about the issue, officials added.
There are about 3,500 children of martyrs entitled to government funding and total expenditure is not more than Rs 4 to Rs 5 crore a year.
