Hundreds of ex-servicemen from Uttarakhand are expected to participate in the protest rally at Jantar Mantar on February 1. The rally is being organised to put pressure on the Union government to implement One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme.
The state of Uttarakhand has large number of retired armed force personnel and large number of these personnel is planning to participate in the rally. Col P l Parashar (rtd) told The Pioneer that it is now or never situation for the ex servicemen on the issue of OROP. He said that retired servicemen of the state should attend the rally in sufficient numbers, but those who are not able to attend it due to age and health problems should wear black arm bands on the day to express solidarity on the issue.
The OROP implies uniform pension to personnel retiring on the same rank with the same length of service notwithstanding their date of retirement. The ex servicemen across the country are agitated over divergent views of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on OROP.
While Modi on different occasions has assured that the scheme would soon be implemented, the Defence minister’s recent statement that he would try to implement 80 percent of the scheme has not gone well with the ex servicemen .It is worth mentioning here that the previous UPA government had passed the OROP on February 17, 2014 and earmarked Rs 500 Crores in its Vote on Account for the scheme.
In the NDA regime the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely budget speech proposed Rs 1000 Crores for OROP. The officials of Defence ministry are dithering on the implementation of the scheme as according to them a sum of at least Rs 9000 Crores is required to for the scheme.