one more Pay parity anomaly has been resolved

I am happy to announce that with Grace of God one more Pay parity anomaly has been resolved today. The announcement of the same was done by none other than RM in Army Commanders conf. The issue dates back to 14 Feb 2019 Pulwama incident. Post this incident on 22 Feb 2019 the Risk and Hardship allowance in hinterlands and other locations were revised upwards. Thereby there was a situation where in the CAPF were drawing higher rates of allowance than the Armed forces personnel in the same location. This created the anomaly.

Accordingly a Committee was formed in DoD in Mar 2019 to examine the issue. Meanwhile DMA was formed and another Committee in Mar 2020 headed by CISC was tasked to resolve the issue. Thereafter number of meetings, discussions and deliberations was undertaken and finally present CNS then CISC before moving as   FoC –in C the report was submitted in Jan 2021 and approved by RM in Aug 2021. Thereafter the case was with MoF and the file was never returned even for once with any query or for want of any information. 

The proposal for parity with CAPF was cleared by MoF in Apr 2022. The delay was primarily due to Covid considering the large financial outgo. Our proposal for retrospective implementation was justified and granted.

The above timeline is just for info of all to understand the govt approval process. Few   amongst us may feel this could have been done two years back.

The letter being restrictive, in nature no copy of the same is being posted here. However the salient features of the letter No 8 (3)/2017/D (Pay/Services) dated 21 April 22 is as:

For the first time a common Govt letter on Risk & Hardship (R&H) Allowance for the Armed forces personnel has been issued by MoD/DMA.

The R&H allowance has also been made admissible to NCC units, Training Centres, BRO, MES and other static units at one level lower as admissible to the combatant troops. (This has the approval in CoSC).

40% of the personnel posted to SFC will be paid R&H allowance at R2H2 cell which is Rs 10,500/- for Officers and Rs 6,000/- for JCOs/OR.

In case if there is any reduction in the revised allowance in any particular location than the existing allowance would continue.

Inadvertently, if any location has been left out in the annexure the existing allowance would continue.

The personnel posted for Anti Naxal Task Force (ANTF) duties with CAPF has been granted the R&H allowance as applicable to CAPF which is as follows :-

Officers JCOs/OR

(a) Ranchi 16,900/- 9,700/-

(b) Raipur 13,000/- 7,470/-

(c) Jagdalpur 25,000/- 17,300/-

Majority of IAF units in EAC has been covered in the revised list of R&H allowance.  Few examples of the revised rates of allowance for IAF personnel are as follows :-

 Officers JCOs/OR

 

(a) Shillong  3,400  2,700

(b) Jorhat  6,300 3,600

(c) Chabua  10,500  6,000

(d) Tezpur  10,500  6,000

(e) Misamari  10,500  6,000

(f) Kumbigram  10,500  6,000

The revised rates are applicable with retrospective effect from 22 Feb 19.

There was a requirement to initiate Tough Location Allowance and MFA on annual basis to draw these allowance which would no longer be required as the revised allowance is higher and being made on location based.

The aprox cash outgo in respect of Armed Forces personnel is Rs 10,000 Cr.