New Delhi: Coming to aid of 12,000 civilian porters working for Indian Army in high risk and active field areas like Rajouri, Jammu and Poonch, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to finalise a scheme having better pay, medical facilities, enhanced compensation and a severance grant higher than the Rs 50,000 proposed by the government.
The apex court also asked the Centre to bear in mind the large pool of porters while enhancing the proportion of the sanctioned strength for regularisation, so that the benefit of security of tenure is made available to a reasonable number of persons who complete a stipulated minimum tenure of service.
A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar issued the directions while noting that though the porters belong to the poorest strata of the society and may not even possess educational qualifications but they provide support to the Army.
