‘The full OROP granted by the National Democratic Alliance government in 2015 has not been implemented so far’.
New Delhi: Ex-servicemen are raising the pitch of their request that the Centre implement the One Rank One Pension (OROP) in letter and spirit.
The ex-servicemen claim that the full OROP granted by the NDA government in November 2015 has not been implemented so far. According to them, this OROP has several anomalies which need to be removed. Moreover, they say that the OROP, which is due for revision from 1 July 2019, is being challenged by Comptroller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) by their letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which says that this revision is not necessary. The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) has filed a case in the Supreme Court in this regard. The apex court has advised the government to talk to the ex-Army men and resolve the issue. However, this has not been done so far. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Maj. Gen. Satbir Singh, Chairman of the IESM, said that the approved definition as announced by the MoS Defence on 2 December 2014 and as given in the MoD letter subsequently has been amended in such a way that may affect “the very soul of OROP”.
The four main anomalies of OROP implementation were pointed out to the government, but these have not yet been rectified so far, causing financial disadvantage to the Defence personnel, 85% of whom are of the rank of Sepoy and their dependants and widows, he said.
When all doors were closed for the ex-servicemen to get full OROP implemented, the IESM knocked the doors of the Supreme Court which asked the government to call the petitioner (IESM) to discuss and resolve the OROP anomalies. “So far, the Raksha Mantri has not yet granted a meeting with our delegation to discuss resolution of OROP anomalies,” said Maj. Gen. Singh.
“It’s not that we have not got anything. The pension has increased due to implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission. But the full OROP has still not been implemented,” he added.
CGDA, in the meantime, has written a letter to Minister of Defence questioning the logic of equalisation of pension with effect from 1 July 2019. “The Raksha Mantri has constituted a committee to go into the equalisation of OROP pensions. It is a surprising that a committee has been constituted on an issue which stood settled by the government. Also, it is intriguing that representative from the IESM has not been included in the committee,” he said, adding: “we urge Rajnath Singhji to fix a meeting with the IESM delegation to resolve the anomalies”.
Maj. Gen. Singh also asked that the constitution of the committee ordered to go into equalisation of pension be cancelled and the report of the one-man judicial committee report, which was submitted in October 2016 on the issue be made public. He also urged that the definition of OROP as per the Koshayari Committee report be accepted and implemented. The expectation is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take action on the matter, in the manner that he intervened earlier.