Soldier's mom to finally get family pension

NEW DELHI: Kamla Devi, who recently approached the armed forces tribunal in Chandigarh to get the pension of her son, rifleman Rinku Ram who was missing since he fell into a raging river while patrolling the border with China in Arunachal Pradesh in November 2009, will now get special family pension and Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia.
However, the defence ministry goofed up in issuing the press statement about it, first announcing on Monday that it had approved the special family pension and ex gratia because Rinku Ram could now be declared dead since he had been missing for seven years.

But later in the night, the MoD said it was withdrawing the press statement after experts questioned its contention that a soldier could be declared dead only after he had been missing for seven years. In fact, the experts said the seven-year rule was changed in 1986 to one year, and later even amended to a wait for just six months. “There are some factual errors in the statement... we are withdrawing it,” the MoD said.

Kamla Devi has approached the tribunal after the defence accounts department in Allahabad insensitively told her that the pension of her son, who belonged to the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, would be released only after his body was found, as reported by TOI earlier this month.

Earlier in the day, the MoD had said in a statement, “Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman immediately got the case examined. Kamla Devi could not be granted ordinary family pension as the family income of the claimant exceeded the prescribed income criteria.

“However, under the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act, a person missing for more than seven years may be presumed dead. Hence, in the case of late rifleman Rinku Ram, the death certificate has been issued by the Arunachal Pradesh government on April 4.’’ “She will also get deathcum-retirement gratuity of Rs 86,106 and Rs 10 lakh exgratia,” the MoD said.