AFVOA Newletters of Year 2006

Page 44 of 77 superiors to give his son a full military burial, despite his enemy status. His request was only partially granted. The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could give him only one musician. The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth's uniform. This wish was granted. The haunting melody, we now know as "Taps" used at military funerals was born. The words are: Day is done, Gone the sun, From the lakes, From the hills, From the sky, All is well Safely rest, God is nigh, Fading light, Dims the sight, And a star, Gems the sky Gleaming bright, From afar ... Drawing nigh, Falls the night. Thanks and praise ... For our days .. Neath the sun ... Neath the stars... Neath the sky. As we go .. This we know ... God is nigh. Matters Financial 31. An article in the HINDU dated 26 Jun 2006 on pay anomaly to Defence Officers is reproduced below for the information of all the Members:- Defence Officers want pay anomaly corrected Sandeep Dikshit NEW DELHI: The Lt. Governor of Pondicherry, Gen. M. M. Lakhera has sought Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee's intervention to correct a 20-year-old Pay Commission that affects over "25,000 defence officers most of whom have retired. In a letter to Mr. Mukherjee, Gen. Lakhera said he had persuaded the officers not to approach the court for redress and requested the Minister to give them their due “in the larger interest of the Government”. The former officers have been contacting each other by e-mail initiated by Brig (Retd) OP Marwah, Chairman of the largest welfare of former defence officers. It all started with a case filed by then Captain A. K. Dhanapalan who had contended that the pay for officers up to the rank of Brigadier had been wrongly fixed and was not in conformity with the recommendations of the Fourth Pay Commission. The officer's contention was upheld first by a single judge of the Kerala High Court and then by a two-member Bench of the same court. After 542 days, when the Government went for an appeal, the Supreme Court did not "find any justifiable explanation for the delay" and dismissed the special leave petition. The impact of the one-time payment to these officers would be Rs.120 crores with no perpetuating effect, according to Gen. (Retd.) Surjit Singh, Chairman of the Army's Fourth Pay Commission cell. The payout would vary between Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 70,000 in extreme cases. A meeting of former officers in NOIDA has decided that no officer would claim interest on 20- year-old arrears. "Many of the officers are too old to claim the money and some have died. So, the payout would be for a maximum of 22,000 officers," estimates Gen. Singh. The seeds for the anomaly were sown after the Fourth Pay Commission recommended "Rank pay" in addition to the new pay scales for officers up to the rank of Brigadier. But the bureaucracy deducted the rank pay, fixed the new scales and then added the rank pay.