Govt committed to one-rank, one-pension: PM

TNN

New Delhi, 30 may 2015: A day after the protest by war veterans, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that his government is committed to the long-awaited one-rank, one-pension (OROP) policy for ex-servicemen.

 

In a tweet, the PM said, "On OROP - the Govt is committed to OROP & there’s no doubt about it."

 

OROP scheme is aimed at ensuring that all retired soldiers, who have the same rank and the length of service receive the same amount of pension, irrespective of their date of retirement. Currently, all those soldiers who retired before 2006 receive less pension than their counterparts and even their juniors.

 

"The previous governments don’t have the right to speak about it because they did nothing when they were in power," PM Modi said in an interview to an English Daily, The Tribune.

 

On Friday, defence minister Manohar Parrikar had said that there is no timeframe that could be specified for its implementation as a couple of administrative steps were still pending.

 

"There cannot be a date specified to implement OROP. This scheme was not understood by the previous government properly. There are many fine prints and aspects that need to be considered. After taking a lot of time, I have crystallised the department...There are two-three administrative steps that are still pending," Parrikar had said.

 

Anger is rapidly mounting among ex-servicemen against the Modi government’s continuing delay in implementing the much-promised one-rank, one-pension (OROP) for the 25 lakh-strong community around the country.

 

Over the last several years, groups of ex-servicemen have been holding rallies and returning their medals to protest against the non-implementation of OROP, which has been promised by virtually all political parties during election campaigns.

 

The Modi government, too, has repeatedly promised OROP over the last one year but deadlines have come and gone without it being actually implemented. A government official said on Thursday, "It’s just a matter of time. The legal and implementation nitty-gritties are being sorted out between the defence and finance ministries since it involves an annual outgo of around Rs 8,300 crore, with arrears since April 2014."