Blaming the vested interests in the bureaucracy for undue delay in granting 'One Rank, One Pension' to country's 30 lakh ex-servicemen, Congress deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought urgent attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the issue.
Capt Amarinder, in a letter to the Prime Minister, wondered whether it was the bureaucracy or the Parliament that was running the country. “I am intrigued over such a situation where the bureaucracy has been trying to overrule the Parliament. Is it the bureaucracy that is running this country or the ParliamentIJ” he asked.
He said, “It is strange that despite the decision about OROP having been approved by the Parliament, no headway has been made so far as the vested interests in the bureaucracy are trying to scuttle it.”
The former Chief Minister wondered despite both the UPA and the NDA in favour of the decision, it was still not being implemented because of the bureaucratic hurdles.
“It was the previous UPA Government which approved the OROP. The then Finance Minister P Chidambaram allocated Rs500 crores for this purpose in his last Budget as the exact figures had not been known at that time…Finance Minister Arun Jaitely also approved about Rs1,000 crores for this purpose in this year's Budget,” pointed Capt Amarinder.
Amritsar MP said that since then, the total amount required for the implementation of the scheme has been worked out to be about Rs9,500 crores, which is a pittance as compared to the expenditure incurred on other schemes like Food Security or MGNREGA which cost lakhs of crores of rupees.He said, he was surprised that the matter has been put on the back-burner for an amount of Rs9,500 crores which is really not that much.
“Should this amount really matter for a country like India and that too when it concerns our 30 lakhs ex-servicemen who have given their lifetime for the country having served the nation in peace and war,” he asked.