Committed to OROP, says PM; no deadline set

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his Government is committed to implementation of “One Rank One Pension” (OROP), but he didn’t commit a specific timeline for the same.  He said the Government has “in-principle” accepted the demand for OROP and it is working out the modalities.“Every Government has given small promises but the issue has not been resolved. Even after I came, I have not been able to do it till now. Today, I am assuring my soldiers once again... In-principle OROP has been accepted by us, but talks with stakeholders are on,” he said.

However, no fixed deadline for OROP drew sharp reactions from ex-servicemen who vowed to step up their protest.Reacting sharply to Modi’s address, chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement Major-General Satbir Singh (Retd) said: “I am sorry, in-principle was accepted 17 months ago and he has also accepted it. I want to ask the Prime Minister, what is holding up the implementation of OROPIJ”

Singh added that according to them, it was nothing but bad intentions of the bureaucracy that was holding up the process. Asked what will be the next course of action as they have been protesting for over two months, he said, “Our core committee will sit and decide.”The protesters, who have been protesting at Jantar Mantar for many days, had put up a large lCD screen there to watch Modi’s speech. However, as soon as they realised that Modi had not announced OROP, they switched it off.