KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Over 1,200 army officers have refused to contribute a day’s salary to the Prime Minister’s relief fund for the floods that ravaged Jammu and Kashmir last year.
As per the report carried by Economic Times, the army men resorted to a rare protest as the government did not bother to seek the concurrence of all donors.
“The refusal to part with a day’s salary is the latest in the controversy over a ‘donation cheque’ that was handed over to the Prime Minister in January by the Army,” the report said. “The dummy cheque, which is yet to be formally deposited into the PM’s Fund, was titled ‘One day’s pay of all ranks of the Indian Army’.”
Several army personnel had been upset since they saw this as a unilateral announcement without taking the concurrence of all involved, the report said. “The amount to be contributed would have worked out to just over Rs 100 crore.”
“Following the controversy, the Army issued consent forms to all its personnel across the nation for taking out one day’s salary from their accounts. According to the records of the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (officers) which looks at all salary related issues, a total of 1,262 officers have refused to contribute to the fund as of August this year.”
The refusal is being seen as a rare, visible protest from within the force.
