A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Sunday underscored his Government’s commitment to implementation of OROP, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday also followed suit, taking a dig at the past Governments for merely chattering on the issue and not taking a concrete step for over four decades.
“OROP is an issue of 43 years. For 43 years no one did anything. This Government fulfilled it and we have already disbursed more than Rs5,500 crore. Annual cost of OROP is around Rs7,500 crore. We are giving arrears as well as current payment,” Parrikar said.
Speaking to the media in the State capital, while inaugurating a multi-level car parking complex, Parrikar also said that over two million ex-servicemen were already benefitting from the ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme implemented by the National Democratic Alliance Government.
“Almost 20.69 lakh ex-servicemen are benefitting out of it. So this is an assurance which was given by Prime Minister, which this Government under this Prime Minister has kept and has actually given the money. All others who talk, they were only talking and they were talking for 43 years. It is not a demand of last year, or year before last or during this elections,” the Defence Minister said.
In his Mann ki Baat address on Sunday, Modi had said that his Government was trying his best to do justice to the ex-servicemen who had been demanding implementation of OROP for over 40 years.
“The OROP was not about just Rs200 or Rs500 crore, but Rs10,000 crore... After I became the PM, and decided that I had to do (implement) it, the entire Government lost sleep over it... It was not possible for the Government to pay in one go, so I requested the ex-servicemen to accept it in four installments.
“The money will reach them in four installments. Nearly, Rs5,500 crore has been paid as the first installment,” the Prime Minister had said.
Parrikar also said that his opponents were unnecessarily raising chorus about his repeated trips to Goa.