The ex-servicemen are disappointed over lack of mention of One-Rank-One Pension (OROP) in the Budget speech of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. There are more than 25 lakh ex-servicemen in the country who were closely following the budgetary allocation for the OROP. President Emeritus Dehradun Ex-Services league, Brigadier KG Behl (Rtd) expressed his anguish at the Finance Minister skipping the most contentious issue for the armed forces veterans. He said that that it is regretful that no budgetary allocation for the OROP was made by the Finance Minister in his speech.
Behl said that the meager increase in the Budget do not appear sufficient to even purchase the weapons and equipment immediately needed for the Defence Forces. Colonel D l Parashar (Rtd) said that the ex-servicemen should wait for some more time as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had assured that he would implement the scheme in a time period of three months. B S Rawat, a retired air force officer said that since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister had repeatedly assured about implementing the OROP, they should have ensured that the Finance Minister do not miss it out in his budget.
The OROP implies uniform pension to personnel retiring on the same rank with the same length of service notwithstanding their date of retirement. It is worth mentioning here that soon after assuming office the NDA government in its interim budget had earmarked Rs 1000 Crores for the OROP.
The defence experts are of the opinion government needs at least Rs 9000 Crores to implements OROP. They are of the view that 10.95 percent hike in the budget this year is not enough to meet the colossal financial implication arising out of the implementation of OROP. To press for their demand of implementation of OROP scheme the ex-servicemen from across the country held a massive protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on February 1.