Uttarakhand Shaheed Kosh Anudan

What is Uttarakhand Shaheed Kosh Anudan?

Uttarakhand Shaheed Kosh Anudan is a one-time grant of Rs 10 lakh paid by the Directorate of Sainik Welfare, Government of Uttarakhand to the widow and dependants of a soldier or paramilitary serviceman of the state who has been killed in a war, a border skirmish or an internal security operation. The scheme is commonly written in Hindi as Uttarakhand Shaheed Kosh Anudan and appears that way on departmental lists.

Uttarakhand is one of India's most heavily military states in proportion to its population. A very large number of men from Garhwal and Kumaon serve in the Army, the paramilitary forces and the Central Armed Police Forces, and a large number retire from service every year. The Directorate of Sainik Welfare exists to handle that rehabilitation and welfare load, and Shaheed Kosh Anudan is the single largest cash grant on its list. The state's own recognition, over and above whatever the Centre and the service pay, that a family has lost its earning member in the line of duty.

The grant is administered through the District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Offices, which exist in every district of Uttarakhand and are the working arm of the Directorate. The Directorate itself is at 15-C, Kalidas Road, Hathibarkala, Dehradun.

How much is paid and how is it divided?

The scheme pays Rs 10,00,000 as a one-time grant. It is not a pension and not a recurring allowance. What makes this scheme different from most is that the department publishes an explicit sharing formula, so the family knows in advance who gets what:

• (a) Where the martyr was married:
• Widow (Veer Nari): 60 per cent of the prescribed amount.
• Parents: 40 per cent of the prescribed amount.
• (b) If the parents are not alive, the entire prescribed amount goes to the widow (Veer Nari).
• Where the widow is not alive, 40 per cent goes to the parents and 60 per cent is divided equally among all the dependent children.
• (c) Where neither the parents nor the widow is alive, the entire prescribed amount is divided equally among all the dependent children.
• (d) Where the widow is not alive and there are no children, the entire prescribed amount is paid to the parents.
• Where the martyr was unmarried or a widower, the entire prescribed amount is paid to the parents.

This formula is applied by the District Sainik Welfare Office at the time of sanction, which is why the relationship certificate from the Record Office is a mandatory document. It is the record on which the split is calculated.

Who is eligible for Shaheed Kosh Anudan?

You can claim if:

• You are the widow (Veer Nari), parent or dependent child of a soldier or paramilitary serviceman who was killed in a war, a border skirmish or in internal security duty.
• The death is certified as a battle casualty by the Record Office of the Army, or as a battle casualty or operational casualty by the Director General of the concerned paramilitary force or the Director General, Central Armed Police Forces.
• The Part-II order relating to the casualty has been issued by the Record Office or Directorate General office.
• The District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Office certifies that no ex-gratia grant has already been paid to the family under this head.
• The family is a domicile family of Uttarakhand and the case is registered with a District Sainik Welfare Office in the state.

You are not eligible and cannot claim if:

• The death is not classified as a battle casualty or operational casualty. A death during service from illness, an ordinary accident or natural causes does not attract this grant, though other Sainik Welfare and service benefits may apply.
• The casualty certificate and Part-II order cannot be produced from the Record Office or the Directorate General of the force.
• You are not among the classes named in the sharing formula. The grant is confined to the widow, the parents and the dependent children. Siblings and other relatives are not covered as a separate class.
• The grant has already been paid for the same casualty. The certificate from the District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Office exists precisely to prevent a second payment.

What documents are required?

How to apply for Shaheed Kosh Anudan

1. Visit your District Sainik Welfare Office and collect the application form for Shaheed Kosh Anudan. The scheme is handled at district level and the form is issued by the same office that will process it.
2. Obtain the service documents. The battle casualty certificate, the Part-II order and the relationship certificate; from the Record Office of the Army unit, or from the Directorate General of the paramilitary force or the Central Armed Police Forces as applicable. This is usually the slowest part of the process, so start it early.
3. Obtain the no-earlier-payment certificate from the District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Office confirming that no ex-gratia grant has already been paid.
4. Complete the form and attach the bank passbook, discharge book, the initial report of the action and identity proof of every claimant among the widow, parents and children.
5. Submit the completed application at the same District Sainik Welfare Office from which the form was collected, and collect an acknowledgement.
6. Wait for scrutiny and sanction. The District Sainik Welfare Office examines the application, and applications found in order are paid the sanctioned amount through Direct Benefit Transfer into the claimants' accounts.

There is no fee for the application and no agent is needed at any stage.

How to check the status of your application

Follow-up runs through the District Sainik Welfare Office where the application was submitted, since scrutiny and sanction both happen there. Keep the acknowledgement and the file reference the office gives you. If the delay is on the service side, a Part-II order or relationship certificate not yet issued — the District Sainik Welfare Officer can usually tell you which document is holding the file and can help correspond with the Record Office.

Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer, so each claimant's account details must be current. Because the grant is split between several people under the sharing formula, a wrong account number for one claimant can hold up that share without affecting the others.

Why applications get delayed or rejected

• Casualty not classified as a battle or operational casualty. This is the most common reason and it is decided by the service, not by the state.
• Part-II order or relationship certificate not issued by the Record Office or Directorate General office.
• Dispute over dependants, where the relationship certificate does not match the claim being made, for example over children from an earlier marriage.
• Ex-gratia already paid for the same casualty under this head.
• Bank details incorrect for one or more claimants, causing a failed transfer after sanction.

The practical fix for most of these is to work through the District Sainik Welfare Officer, who deals with the Record Offices routinely and knows which authority issues which certificate.

What other Sainik Welfare help may go with this

Shaheed Kosh Anudan is one item on a longer list that the Directorate of Sainik Welfare, Uttarakhand runs for ex-servicemen and the families of the fallen. Others on the same departmental list include:

• Residential assistance grant. A one-time grant of Rs 2 lakh, allowed once in a lifetime, for construction or repair of a house, for widows and dependants of soldiers killed in wars and border skirmishes and for war-disabled discharged soldiers. It is applied for at the District Sainik Welfare Office with the battle casualty report, the Part-II order, dependants' certificate and an estimate of the construction or repair work issued by a junior or assistant engineer.
• One-time grants for gallantry and distinguished service award holders, for example a one-time grant of a minimum of Rs 75,000 and a maximum of Rs 2 lakh for serving and former soldiers of the state decorated with a Distinguished Service Medal, claimed with a copy of the gazette notification.
• Scholarships for engineering, medical and PhD study for dependants of ex-servicemen, Rs 12,000 for engineering, Rs 15,000 for medical and Rs 10,000 for a PhD per year, applied for online at www.sainikkalyan.org and paid from the Kargil Shaheed Parivar Chief Minister's Assistance Fund.
• Free one-year computer and professional accounting training for ex-servicemen, soldiers' widows and their dependants who have passed Class 12.
• Relief and stamp-duty concessions and the assistance payable by the Kendriya Sainik Board, which the same district offices help process.

The Directorate's own portal, www.sainikkalyan.org, carries the online applications for the schemes that have been moved online, and the district offices handle the rest.

Help and where to raise a problem

• Directorate of Sainik Welfare, Uttarakhand to 15-C, Kalidas Road, Hathibarkala, Dehradun. Phone 0135-2741481, email dir-Soldierwel-uk@nic.in
• Department portal; www.sainikkalyan.org
• District Sainik Welfare and Rehabilitation Office in your district, the office that issues the form, scrutinises the application and releases payment

If an application is wrongly rejected or held up at district level, the escalation is to the Director, Sainik Welfare at the Dehradun directorate, with copies of the casualty certificate, the Part-II order and your acknowledgement.

Key facts to remember

• Rs 10 lakh one-time grant, paid by the Directorate of Sainik Welfare, Uttarakhand.
• Covers soldiers and paramilitary personnel killed in wars, border skirmishes and internal security operations.
• Split 60 per cent to the widow (Veer Nari) and 40 per cent to the parents, with published rules for every other family situation.
• The application is offline, collected from and submitted at the District Sainik Welfare Office.
• Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer after district-level scrutiny.
• A battle casualty certificate and the Part-II order are the two documents the whole claim turns on.