World war II veteran wins pension battle

He used to get Rs 15 as pension in 1949, but now he will get around Rs 4600 per month, reports Bhartesh Singh Thakur.

This Second World War veteran has won a battle and will get his pension benefits after a gap of 60 years.

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Naurang Singh ( 85), now partially blind, had seen action in the Second World War in Assam, Shillong and Lahore, as a soldier with the Royal Indian Army that he joined during the British Raj in 1941.

This villager from Chat in Patiala district was invalidated out of the British Army on February 6, 1946 with 20 per cent disability after he contacted pneumonia in 1945.

Following this, he used to get a pension of Rs 15 per month from the Controller of Military Accounts (Pension), Lahore, disbursed through the Postmaster, Ludhiana.

But the pension was stopped by Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension), Allahabad, on April 13, 1949, as a re-survey medical board reduced his disability to that of below 20 per cent.

He approached various soldiers’ welfare organisations, but in vain. He raised his nine children ( six daughters and three sons) by working as a driver in the private sector.

It was only recently, in 2006, that a similar judgement granting service pension to Pritpal Singh that Naurang Singh;s daughters Gurdeep Kaur and Jagdeep Kaur approached the All India Ex-servicemen Welfare Association ( AIEWA) based in Chandigarh. His sons too have retired from active service and are getting regular pension. Few of his grandchildren are married too.

The association served the notice of demand in 2007 and then filed a writ petition in 2008, which was allowed by Justice Parmod Kohli in the first week of December. He has been granted the service pension, which would be around Rs 4600 including dearness allowance, and an arrear of Rs 2 lakh.

His arrears are restricted to three years before the date of filing of writ petition in the High Court.