New Delhi: The Army Headquarters and Defence Accounts Department has carried out a pan-India outreach to clear long pending cases of claims worth Rs 400 crores of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Other Ranks (OR) of the Indian Army.

"The outreach commenced at the beginning of this month, spearheaded by Joint CGDA (Grievances) of the Controller General Defence Accounts office in which camps were established in all 48 Pay and Account Offices," Army officials said.

Indian Army activated its Records Offices to address all cases on priority.

"Records Offices (an Army setup) are responsible for checking the correctness of the claims while the vetted claims are finally passed/ paid by the Pay and Accounts Offices (set up under the CGDA – generally located near the Records Offices)," officials said.

There are a total of 48 Records and PAO offices across India, one for each Regiment, Arm or Service.

The Indian Army was receiving lots of grievances from the JCOs and OR that the claims had not been passed due to various observations. The issue was raised with the CGDA and the Joint CGDA (Grievances) in an unprecedented move and worked expeditiously in complete synergy with the Indian Army and analyzed all cases one by one through their PAOs.

Measures were instituted to fast-track the passing of claims especially pertaining to Children's Education Allowances, House Rent Allowances, Pay Fixation cases etc.

To execute the task, a War Room was established in the CGDA and cases were being monitored closely. This exercise has benefitted a large number of JCOs and ORs and it is going to continue in future.