It was not about getting a few thousand rupees more but a question of justice that drove him to bring to light "the sloppy attitude of banks in disbursing pension to ex-servicemen" as per revised norms, says commodore Lokesh Batra (retired).

Following a decision by the union cabinet in September 2012 to revise norms regarding pension given to ex-servicemen, the government had directed all banks in January this year to disburse pensions as per revised norms calculated September onward. The government had also sanctioned Rs 2,300 crore to meet the financial obligations that would arise following the revision of payments.

“It was more than three months after the directive was sent out to the banks but I had not received my arrears (pending revised amount). That is when I decided to approach my bank and question them about the delay,” says Batra, 66, who approached the Syndicate Bank branch in central Delhi earlier this month.

This moved his bank to action and commodore Batra received his arrears and the revised pension. But thousands of other ex-servicemen continued to be denied their due. Having spoken to other retired officers and being convinced that the problem was widespread, he wrote to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) highlighting the issue.

Commodore Batra also shared the letter through the email service group ‘Report My Signal (RMS)’, with over 2,700 retired servicemen as members. “I wanted to see whether the problem was truly widespread and thus sent out the letter,” he says.

Mails from across the country started pouring in and Batra says the response was startling. “One case which was particularly horrifying was that of a retired vice-admiral’s 90-year-old mother who had not received her revised pension in Punjab. Having received responses from over 500 ex-servicemen, I compiled their problems and sent a copy to RBI as proof.”

On April 22, the RBI issued directions to all banks instructing them to immediately disburse outstanding dues to the pensioners or family pensioners, along with 8 percent interest as compensation for the delayed period.

The RBI circular said: “We have received several complaints from the defence pensioners that they have not received enhanced pension arrears declared by government. We, therefore, advise you to implement instructions issued by the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA) at the earliest, if not already done, under advice to us. It has now been decided to charge eight percent as penal interest for delayed credit of revised pension.”

But all’s not well on the ground even thereafter. Mumbai-based commodore KL Chopra (retired), 88, says he has been writing to and visiting his bank branch since March without effect. “At my age, it is difficult to run from pillar to post chasing my pension. It takes me over an hour to reach the bank branch from my house and doing this on a regular basis is a pain,” Chopra complains.

From lack of time to calculate revised figures owing to preparation of final accounts in the last few months to training of staff, banks have sent back complaining pensioners assuring them that the arrears would be given out soon.

On being asked about the reason for the delay, a senior official with Bank of India says, “After we received the circular from RBI in January we immediately sent it to all our branches so that they could update their systems with revised estimates. With the financial year coming to an end in March, branch officials got busy in completing other formalities and preparing their books which is why they were unable to update their systems with revised pension figures.”
However, the official claims that nearly 4, 000 ex-servicemen have received their revised pensions while arrears of another 15, 000 will be cleared in April.
Justifying the delay owing to the process being a time-consuming one, a senior banking official at the Punjab National Bank head office says, “Branches have been facing some difficulties in updating the system and disbursing revised pensions. Every single pension needs to be calculated as per revised rates and feeding this data into the system will take some time. We have been providing all kinds of assistance that our branches require and by May all the arrears will be cleared.” The bank, with around 4.5 lakh defence pensioners’ accounts, started paying out revised pensions only from March, three months after the circular was issued by the central bank.

However, Batra has refuted the banks’ claims calling them “lame excuses”. “Pensions are like salaries of retirees and they cannot be delayed by a day. Those among us who are aware of the issue and have the access to banks will, sooner or later, ensure that we get our dues. But this is a serious problem for those who are unaware, or possibly cannot demand their dues due to old age or lack of access,” Batra says. “Prompt action needs to be taken by the banks, RBI and the government.”