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The government has prepared draft on modalities for the implementation of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) for ex-servicemen with an option to revise once in five years and it is likely that the announcement would be made in next two days. Thereby, Government is looking to end the logjam on the scheme, even though it is termed as ‘unilateral’ by the ex-servicemen who rejected the draft.

The issue of equalization is the major sticking point about the revision of the scheme. The Government firmly sticks on the revision once in five years citing the administrative difficulties to revise every year.

The Chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Satbir Singh, said while speaking at Jantar Mantar that they are ready for revision once in two years but not beyond that.

Veterans Demand

The demands from the veterans are for annual revision according to the definition of OROP. It says ‘uniform pension based on rank and length of service irrespective of when they retire’.

Veterans are demanding for implementation from 1 April 2014, while the government wants to implement from 1 July 2014. The government was sworn in on 26 May 2014 and the base year would be taken as 2013.

According to the terms of implementation, arrears for widows are to be immediately cleared and would be rolled out in four installments for all others. Nearly 2.45 million veterans besides six lakh war widows stand to benefit from the OROP scheme.

A judicial commission would be set up to detect issues and submit related report in six months, sources revealed.

-Sumana