NEW DELHI, Nov 25:
Making an exception, Government has granted ‘liberalised family pension’ benefits to the families of 15 ITBP troops who were killed in a chopper crash during rescue operations in flood-hit Uttarakhand last year.
Recognising the “sacrifice” of these personnel, nine belonging to the National Disaster Response Force and six of the ITBP, the Government has decided to extend this special benefit to the ‘next of kin’ or family members of these troopers.
An official order issued earlier this month, accessed by PTI, said the liberalised family pension has been accorded to the families of these 15 jawans and officers “who sacrificed their lives in helicopter Mi-17 crash during search and rescue operations in Uttarakhand on June 25, 2013 by relaxation of Rule by invoking Rule 4 of CCS (EOP) Rules.”
The Extraordinary Pension (EOP) rules are invoked to accord pension benefits to the men and women in uniform as categorised under “cases of death or injury sustained by personnel of the Central Police Organisation while employed in aid of the civil administration.”
This effectively means, an officer privy to the development said, that the families of these martyrs will get full pension benefits which they or the serving officer would have got after his due retirement from service in normal course.
“These benefits are given only in special cases after getting approval from the President of India’s office and clearance by the ministries of Home, Finance and Personnel and are called extraordinary pension benefits in official parlance,” they said.
These personnel had already been given the ex-gratia and other monetary benefits which are provided to the affected families in case of death on duty.
The case of these 15 personnel, all belonging to border guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police with nine on deputation to NDRF, was being taken up by both the forces and the Union Home Ministry after it was felt that their sacrifice was not recognised by any award or medal like the IAF officials, on-board the same helicopter, being decorated with gallantry medals.
The helicopter (Mi-17V5) crash, in Gaurikund near the Kedarnath valley, claimed the lives of 20 men in uniform with five of them belonging to the Indian Air Force.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, on being briefed about the absence of in-service medals in this domain, had recently announced institution of a new national medal for the personnel of country’s lead disaster mitigation force NDRF and other such units who risk their lives to help the common man struck in calamities and during relief and rescue operations. (PTI)
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