In a massive move, the long-pending claims worth Rs 400 crore for the Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Other Ranks (OR) of Indian Army were settled in a fast-track manner, officials said on Sunday (September 24).
The Army Headquarters and the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), the office that heads the Defence Accounts Department, cleared the long-standing claims. The joint move, they carried out nationwide outreach to the Army personnel for the purpose beginning the start of September. The outreach programme was spearheaded by Joint CGDA (Grievances) of the CGDA office in which camps were established in all 48 Pay and Account Offices, officials added.
The Indian Army addressed all cases on priority.
This comes after the Indian Army received several grievances from the JCOs and Other Ranks that the claims had not been settled due to various observations. Following the grievances, the issue was put in front of CGDA, they said.
“The Joint CGDA (Grievances) initiated the matter expeditiously in complete synergy with the Indian Army and analysed all cases one by one through their PAOs,” officials said.
Fastrack measures
The concerned body took measures to speed-up the passing of claims, primarily in cases pertaining to children education allowances, house rent allowances, pay fixation cases etc,” they added.
A war room was set up in the CGDA to complete the task on ground where the cases were closely monitored.
“This exercise has benefitted large number of JCOs and OR and it is going to continue in future too,” the officials said.
Notably, the Records Offices (an Army setup) are responsible for checking the correctness of the claims while the vetted claims are finally passed or paid by the Pay and Accounts Offices (setup under the CGDA).
There are a total of 48 Records and PAO offices across India, one for each Regiment, Arm or Service.
