Financial Assistance to Recipients of Distinguished Service Medals, Madhya Pradesh

What is the Madhya Pradesh grant for distinguished service medal recipients?

Financial Assistance to Recipients of Distinguished Service Medals is a state honour scheme of the Directorate of Sainik Welfare, Home Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh. The directorate's list of state-sponsored facilities records it as financial assistance from the Government of Madhya Pradesh to soldiers decorated for shaurya (gallantry) and vishisht seva (distinguished service), and its published scheme table sets out separate rates for each medal.

Distinguished service medals differ from gallantry awards. Gallantry decorations, the Param Vir Chakra, Shaurya Chakra and their family, recognise a specific act of bravery. Service medals recognise distinguished service of a high order, usually over a period of command or in a demanding operational role, and are announced on Republic Day and Independence Day each year. Madhya Pradesh honours both, at different scales.

The scale published by the Directorate of Sainik Welfare is:

The three Yuddh Seva medals are wartime distinguished-service awards; the three Vishisht Seva medals are their peacetime counterparts. The Madhya Pradesh scale recognises this by paying the wartime medals at a higher rate than their peacetime equivalents at the same level of seniority.

The scheme is delivered by the District Sainik Welfare Offices (Zila Sainik Kalyan Karyalaya), which also issue ex-servicemen identity cards and process the directorate's other benefits.

Who is eligible for the service medal grant?

You can claim if:

• You are domiciled in Madhya Pradesh. Domicile is the deciding test, not the location of the unit or of your current posting.
• You have been awarded one of the service medals listed above, Sarvottam Yuddh Seva Medal, Uttam Yuddh Seva Medal, Yuddh Seva Medal, Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Vishisht Seva Medal, or the Sena Medal for distinguished service.
• The award has been notified by the Government of India, so a gazette entry or formal citation exists.
• You can produce your discharge book or service certificate and a bank account in your own name.

You are not eligible if:

• You are domiciled outside Madhya Pradesh.
• Your decoration is a gallantry award, in which case the separate and higher-value gallantry grant applies instead: Rs 1 crore for the Param Vir Chakra and Ashoka Chakra, Rs 75 lakh for the Maha Vir Chakra and Kirti Chakra, Rs 50 lakh for the Vir Chakra and Shaurya Chakra, and Rs 25 lakh for the Sena, Vayu Sena and Nau Sena Medals for gallantry.
• Your medal is a campaign, long-service or general-service medal rather than a distinguished-service decoration. Campaign medals are not part of this scheme.
• The award is not yet notified.
• You are seeking a second payment for the same medal. The grant is one-time per decoration.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Madhya Pradesh service medal grant

1. Register at your District Sainik Welfare Office. Carry your discharge book or service certificate, ESM identity card, domicile proof and Aadhaar to the Zila Sainik Kalyan Karyalaya of your district.
2. Get your ESM ID generated on the portal. The directorate's instruction page states that an ex-serviceman compulsorily needs a portal-generated ESM ID to request any scheme.
3. Map the ESM ID to your Samagra Member ID and complete Aadhaar e-KYC of that Samagra ID. The portal will not accept a request until this is done.
4. Raise the request online. Go to sainikkalyan.mp.gov.in → Yojanaon ke liye anurodh (Request for Schemes), enter your ESM mobile number, ESM ID and Samagra Member ID with the captcha, and pick the service medal grant.
5. Submit the documents; gazette notification or citation, domicile proof, discharge book, Aadhaar and bank passbook copy — at the District Sainik Welfare Office and collect a written acknowledgement.
6. Let the district office verify and forward the case to the Directorate of Sainik Welfare at Bhopal.
7. Receive the sanction and the credit in your Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

There is no separate application window. The claim is made whenever the medal is notified, and the file moves as soon as the documents are complete.

What else does Madhya Pradesh give a decorated soldier?

The service medal grant is one entry in a much longer list of state entitlements that the Directorate of Sainik Welfare publishes for ex-servicemen and their families. Alongside it sit:

• Free treatment in government hospitals for ex-servicemen and dependants.
• 2 per cent reservation in allotment of residential plots and flats under state government schemes.
• 50 per cent rebate in property tax, provided the ex-serviceman or widow is not an income-tax payer.
• 10 per cent reservation in Group C and 20 per cent in Group D state government posts, and 14.5 per cent and 24.5 per cent respectively in public undertakings.
• Reservation for children in professional education to 3 per cent in medical education, 5 per cent in technical education, law colleges and B.Ed. courses, and 2 per cent in agriculture colleges.
• Exemption from the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission examination fee, and relaxation in the physical test for state police recruitment.
• Samman Nidhi on reaching age milestones, Rs 15,000 at 85 and 90, and Rs 25,000 at 95 and 100.
• 12 ECHS hospitals and 16 Sainik Rest Houses across the state.

These are separate entitlements, and drawing the medal grant does not affect any of them.

How do I check the status of my claim?

1. Log in to sainikkalyan.mp.gov.in and open your scheme request.
2. Ask your District Sainik Welfare Officer for the file position. Every district office, the officer's name and phone number are listed on the portal's "Who is Who" page.
3. For a file at Bhopal, call the Directorate on 0755-2553992 or write to dirrsb@mp.gov.in.
4. Escalate a stalled file through the CM Helpline on 181.

Why do service medal claims get delayed?

• ESM ID not mapped to a Samagra Member ID, or Aadhaar e-KYC of the Samagra ID incomplete, which blocks the online request.
• Domicile not documented. A Madhya Pradesh address in the service record is not a domicile certificate.
• Wrong scheme selected. A gallantry awardee filing under the service medal head, or the reverse, which sends the file back for correction.
• Award notification missing, or a citation without the gazette reference.
• Name mismatch between discharge book, Aadhaar and bank records.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the transfer fails after sanction.

Ask the district office for the objection in writing. Almost every delay here is a document defect that can be cured in one visit.

Who do I contact?

• Directorate of Sainik Welfare, Madhya Pradesh: G.T.B. Complex, T.T. Nagar, Bhopal 462003. Phone 0755-2553992, email dirrsb@mp.gov.in.
• Joint Director / Assistant Director: phone 0755-2553743.
• District Sainik Welfare Offices: published with names and numbers on the portal, for example Bhopal 0755-2556198, Gwalior 0751-2990137, Guna 07542-251010, Chhatarpur 07682-245460, Chhindwara 07162-242119, Betul 07141-230790.
• CM Helpline: 181.

Applying is free at every stage.