Indian armed forces veterans, who jeopardised their very lives for ensuring that the prestige of the tricolour remained unsullied, have been targeted again, this time by friendly fire by non-implementation of ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP).
“The United Progressive Alliance Government announced the grant of ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) to all former defence personnel with considerable fanfare and earned lot of gratitude and accolades from the fraternity,” Indian Ex-Servicemen Movementchairman Major General (Retd) Satbir Singh, Sena Medal, said in an official statement. During election campaigns, all Government bigwigs “boasted” of granting OROP.
The Congress even included the same in “achievements” of the United Progressive Alliance II till as late as last Thursday when party president Sonia Gandhi — in her address at a rally — proudly claimed to have sanctioned OROP for ex-soldiers in recognition of their sacrifices for the nation.
“All these days, we have been waiting for formal orders to originate from the regime but to our dismay it is learnt that the bureaucracy does not appear to be favourably disposed to honour this commitment.
The Controller General of Defence Accounts, the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts and the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare have begun carrying out their own interpretation of the definition of OROP, which falls far below the intended pension benefits,” he said.
This they are doing despite a “clear and unambiguous” definition and implication provided by Defence Minister AK Antony on February 26 at a meeting chaired by him regarding the implementation.
There is an uncontroverted definition of ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) that has always been used in all discussions as well as in correspondence including the Report of the Committee of Secretaries on OROP ordered by the Centre in June 2009.