This provides for 100 per cent of last-paid emoluments as pension to the family of the dead soldier. File photo

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March9

Armed forces personnel getting killed or injured while being deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)  with China will now be covered under what is classified as ‘liberalised family pension’.This provides for 100 per cent of last-paid emoluments as pension to the family of the dead soldier. Normally, family pension provides for 30 per cent of the last-paid emoluments.The 3.488-km LAC runs along an east-west axis along the Himalayan ridgeline and is the de facto border with China. India has committed almost 1.7 lakh troops to the area.  Liberalised family pension has been in existence for Army personnel working on the LoC/International Border (IB) with Pakistan. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had promised to extend the liberalised family pension to LAC; a formal order was awaited and the Ministry of Defence issued it on March 7.The order amends the pension policy of February 2011. The amendment says: “Accidental death/injury sustained due to natural calamities such as flood, avalanches, landslides, cyclone, fire and lightning or drowning in river while performing operational duties/movement in action against enemy forces and armed hostilities in operational area to include deployment on international border or Line of Control or Line of Actual Control.”