New Delhi: With ‘stringent’ checks and balances in place, there is no misuse in granting disability pensions to military personnel, Lieutenant General Ajith Nilakantan, Commandant of Army Hospital (Research & Referral) in New Delhi, said Saturday.
Addressing the media at the hospital during a briefing, Lt Gen Nilakantan said that the revised Entitlement Rules and the Guide to Medical Officers (GMO) for pensions had been revised to rationalise disability classification, quantification and granting of disability along with the ministry of health’s The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.
“We have aligned with that system and it is working smoothly,” he said.
He added that every case which is granted disability is “scrutinised by the appropriate medical boards and strict adherence to the rulings is ensured at all levels”.
“I don’t think it is possible for any undeserving case to get through this procedure of very strict scrutinisation of medical boards and then further at formation levels,” he said, adding that the possibility of someone misusing the facility was also not possible due to the many levels of scrutiny.
This follows a raging debate last year over the granting of disability pension in the revision of ‘Entitlement Rules for Casualty Pension and Disability Compensation Awards to Armed Forces Personnel’, which stipulates the conditions for award of death and disability compensation to armed forces. It was revised with effect from 21 September, 2023.
It was the ex-servicemen community last year which raised concerns after the move.
After a considerable amount of backlash against the ministry of defence, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan had said that the new rules for disability pension would prevent “exploitation” and “misuse” by military personnel. At the time, he had also said that it would “protect the genuine interest of personnel who acquire disability during service”.
During the briefing Saturday, Lt Gen Nilakantan also spoke about the hospital’s preparedness to deal with disasters.
The hospital itself is spread over 154 acres and has about 35 departments.
“We have about 300 doctors and 300 nursing officers. In addition, we even have an outsourced paramedical staff. The hospital also has about 1,200 combatants in various ranks who are paramedical and support staff along with about 300 defence civilians who are working here.”
Asked how prepared the hospital was to treat large numbers of casualties during a disaster, he said all military hospitals are inherently planned in a way that they can handle disaster.
“We have an accident emergency establishment which has been augmented and updated just last year. While there are about 100 designated beds as per crisis expansion, various other wards can be repurposed if there is a requirement as we would then prioritise those cases. Depending upon the number of casualties we can make the entire hospital deal with the situation,” he said.
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