Siachen Allowance

Hike in Siachen allowance must be fair

We had taken up the issue for enhancement of Siachen allowance, in these columns, during the Fifth Pay Commission time. Ten years later, a simple issue took an hour of discussion, presumably because some members on the Cabinet Committee appear to have contested the need for increase. Even at the time of the Fifth Pay Commission, the present Finance Minister displayed pronounced bias against the defence forces.Any number of troops during their tenure at Siachen have suffered frostbite and other disabilities, and lost life by slipping into those innumerable crevasses, getting buried under avalanches and, of course, through high altitude sickness. 

There has been no experience worldwide on the long stay and the consequent physiological effect of prolonged exposure to low levels of intake of oxygen combined with extreme cold.
Nor has there been a comprehensive study in this field in India. The psychological effect did surface earlier in most cases and is in the knowledge of the Army. The range and extent of these afflictions set the scale of Siachen allowance quite apart from all other types of allowances.

The issue, therefore, is the fairness in the extent of increase when compared to the allowances made available to civil servants even when functioning under normal living and operating conditions.

Lt-Gen HARWANT SINGH (retd) Camp: New York