New Delhi: Minister of State for Defence, Rao Inderjit Singh, in a written reply to Maj. General (Retd.) BC Khanduri in Lok Sabha today revealed that the principle of One Rank One Pension for the Armed Forces has been accepted by the Government.

The modalities for implementation were discussed with various stakeholders and are presently under consideration of the Government. It will be implemented once the modalities are approved by the Government, Rao added.

Minister stated there is a Pension Grievances Cell in the Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare to attend to grievances of the Ex-servicemen (ESM). Pension grievances received manually are being processed with the concerned offices.

In addition, an online grievance redressal mechanism under the Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), developed by Department of Administrative Reforms, is also in operation through which the grievances received from ESM are being processed and replied electronically, he added.

Further, there are Veteran Cells / Grievance Cells in Service Hqrs, Office of Controller General of Defence Accounts and Office of Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension), Allahabad respectively. Defence Pension Adalats are also being organised at six locations every year to settle the grievances of ESM pensioners on the spot.