[4][7][8][9][10][11] On 5 September 2016 the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government implemented the recommendations of the 7CPC including those affecting the armed forces with minor modifications.
[8] On 14 September 2016 the headquarters of the three services, following assurances at the highest level that anomalies affecting armed forces pay, pension, allowances, rank parity, and status would be addressed,[10][13] issued instructions to their commands to implement the government decision.
[27] AFPRB is composed of experts including always a senior retired armed forces officer, who serves in the body for number of years.
[29] The terms of reference of the commission was: To examine, "the principles that should govern the emoluments structure including pay, allowances and other facilities/benefits, in cash or kind," of civilian employees of the central government (33.02 lakh); and of the Defence forces (13,86,171)[1]: page 105, para 6.2.2 The term of reference specific to the consideration of armed forces pay, pension, and rank structure reads: "having regard to the historical and traditional parities, with due emphasis on the aspects unique to these personnel".
[6][33][34][35] MOD instructions on implementation of the recommendations of the 7CPC " relating to the structure of emoluments, allowances and conditions of service of Armed Forces personnel" was issued on 5 September 2016.
[21][17] Following the decision of the BJP government to implement the levels with existing anomalies, the Chiefs of three armed forces to write to the defence minister and the prime minister conveying their dismay at the anomalies in the levels, and ranks, and status, of armed forces officer in comparison with defence civilians, and the police officers.
They have recommended 65 percent of salary as Saichen allowance.Finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley, briefing media after a meeting of the Cabinet, said the hardship allowance for officers would be increased to Rs 42,500 per month.
[57][41][58] Sashi Tharoor in March 2016, wrote, that the consequences of government policy of lowering "the status and compensation of our military personnel", will "inevitably be suffered by all".
"to draw ... upon the views of the key stakeholders within the government with regard to issues posed by the Defence Services"[1]: para 6.1.6 19 November 2015 A K Mathur, the chairperson of 7CPC, submits 7CPC report.
"[66] 19 December 2015 General Dalbir Singh, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, and Admiral Robin Dhowan, send a joint memorandum to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
The 'Empowered Committee of Secretaries' is mandated to screen the "recommendations of the Commission", and to take "in to account the views of concerned stake holders viz., Ministries, Departments, Staff Associations, and JCM".
21 April 2016 Sashi Tharoor, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, and spokesperson of the Congress (I), in an article averred that the present government is deliberately lowering "the status and compensation of our military personnel".
He said he was not convinced with the reasons given by the pay commission, that the armed forces task were any less complex than that of the police or the forest department which have been made at par with the IAS.
Issues affecting the armed forces will be dealt by MOD bureaucrat Ashok Dongre, JS(Esst/PG), 1987 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
[9] 5 September 2016 Ministry of Defence (MOD) promulgates gazette notification on recommendations of 7CPC affecting armed forces notifies Implementation orders for 7CPC.
[10] A major anomaly is the lowering of level (rank), pay, and status of armed forces in comparison with defence civilians, police officers, and other civil servants.
[10] 9 September 2016 Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha and Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lamba, and General Dalbir Singh, write to the Prime Minister and Parrikar conveying their concern over "unresolved anomalies", and inform their formation and units that they were "constrained to request the government to hold implementation of 7th CPC award in abeyance in view of the anomalies which need to be resolved ".
The signal to the units from service headquarters advised "In the interim, personnel are expected to display maturity and patience, and not be swayed by hearsay or speculative reports from any quarter.
Secondly, it shows the resolve of the Chiefs to fight a highly unjust award, planned, written and implemented by the bureaucracy by taking a nod from the political leadership".
He cautions the armed forces not to fall prey to government "blandishments of all types, like more committees; ministerial interventions and even subtle threats, not to mention the usual 'how much the nation needs you' kind of words!
Parrikar, according to media reports, tells Services chiefs that the armed forces' reservations on the 7th CPC recommendations would be "looked into if found genuine".
"[7] It called on the government, "which is already on the back foot over not fully implementing One Rank, One Pension" to "accord top priority to satisfactorily resolve the issue".
"[14] 15 September 2016 A large contingent of veterans led by Lt Gen S S Brar (retd), march to the office of Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore and submit a memorandum, addressed to the President of India.
Later, Amrinder told reporters that the present situation was caused by "bias of the bureaucrats against the armed forces and the blind eye turned by the political parties running the government".
[35] 13 October 2016 The MOD in response to growing public criticism of the government's decision to implement a more favourable disability pension scheme called 'percentage based system', than the one implemented for the armed forces, called slab based system, issued a press release informing that the representation of the Service Headquarters seeking a disability pension scheme at par with the civilians, has been referred to "the Anomaly Committee of 7th CPC for consideration".
[75] Anandarajan, Joint Secretary, is an officer belonging to the Indian Revenue Service, income tax branch, of 1988 batch, on deputation with MOD.
[79] Retired Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal, commenting on 18 October 2016 memo said "It is an incontrovertible fact that the status of armed forces has been progressively diluted over last few years.
After the uproar in the armed forces, the MOD said the "entire issue", which was "a complicated one lingering for quite some time", would be re-examined by a committee with the aim to "resolve it once and for all".
The disparities between the two systems the minister acknowledged has caused an "anomalous situation", and was referred to the "Anomaly Committee", following criticism that the scheme approved for the armed forces was discriminatory.
[85] When asked in the Rajya sabha, whether the MOD was considering "correcting the discrepancies that have arisen as a result of this disturbance of rank equations", replied the question "does not arise".