As veterans continue to agitate demanding implementation of ‘One Rank One Pension (OROP),' Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to discuss the issue. Parrikar is likely to meet the agitating ex-servicemen in the next few days before they call on the Prime Minister to put across their point of view.
Parrikar's meeting with Modi came in the backdrop of the Prime Minister assuring the veterans in his Independence Day speech that his Government was committed to implement OROP. Reports indicated that the much-awaited welfare measure can be announced on August 28.
The NDA Government will start the month-long celebrations on that day to mark 50 years of India's victory over Pakistan during the 1965 war. The war started on August 28 and ended on September 23. President, Prime Minister and Defence Minister will lay a wreath at Amar Jawan Jyoti on August 28 followed by a military parade and fly past on September 15 at Rajpath. PM Modi will be part of that celebration.
Veterans, who are protesting for the last 72 days for OROP including some ex-servicemen staging indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar for last nine days, had threatened to intensify their agitation on August 28. Fourteen former Services chiefs also wrote to President and the Prime Minister urging them to immediately implement OROP.
NDA had made OROP as one of its main plank to garner votes during the lok Sabha election campaign last year. After coming to power, the Prime Minister and Defence Minister again promised to implement OROP but have not done so far citing technical issues. Ex-servicemen were hoping that the long-delayed measure will come into being when the Modi Government completed one year in office on May 27 but it did not materialise. Similarly, veterans were hopeful that the Prime Minister will announce its implementation on August 15.
If implemented, OROP will benefit more than 23 lakh veterans and six lakh widows. It will cost nearly Rs8,300 crore every year to the exchequer. In fact, this is one of main reasons for the delay as the Government is finding ways and means to garner finances to shoulder this "burden," officials said here on Tuesday.