NON IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP)

Indian Military Veterans

PRESS RELEASE  

NON IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP)

Dear Members of the Media,

1.  The UPA Govt announced the grant of One Rank One Pension (OROP) to all defence personnel with lot of fan fare and earned lot of gratitude and accolades from the defence fraternity.  During the election campaigns, all top leaders of the Govt have boasted of having granted the OROP.  The congress party even included the same in their achievements of UPA 2 till as late as 08 May 2014 where in the Congress President in her speech in one of the Election Rally proudly claimed to have sanctioned OROP for the soldiers in recognition of their sacrifices for the Nation.

2. For all these days, the soldiers have been waiting for the formal orders to originate from the Govt, but to their dismay, it is learnt that the bureaucracy of this country does not appear to be favourably disposed to honour this commitment.  The CGDA, PCDA and DESW have now started carrying out their own interpretation of the definition itself of the OROP, which falls far below the intended pension benefits to the defence personnel.  This, they are doing inspite of clear and unambiguous definition and implication given by the RM on 26^th Feb 2014 in a meeting chaired by him for the  implementation of OROP.  There is a clear cut uncontroverted definition of OROP which 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 Govt in June 2009 (Please refer Para 2.1 of Report of the Committee on One Rank One Pension and related issue dated 30^thJune, 2009) and at Para 3 of the Rajay Sabha Petition Committee Report on OROP which was presented to the Rajay Sabha on 19 Dec 2011 and also is given in the minutes of the meeting chaired by the Raksha Mantri on 26 Feb 2014 which is as under :-

“OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension, to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners”.

3.  It further implies that “Pensions of past defence retirees will be equal to that of a person with same rank and length of service and same group retiring wef 01 Apr 2014, and future enhancement in the rates of pensions will be automatically passed to the past pensioners”.

4.   Interpreting the definition in any other way is a serious manipulation by the bureaucracy.  It not only amounts to the blatant disobedience of the Govt order but also amounts to betrayal of the soldiers.  This attitude of the bureaucracy of denying the soldiers their rightful demand is highly deplored by the defence fraternity.

5.  The present Govt must take immediate action to ensure that Govt notification based on the accepted definition of OROP as above is issued, otherwise, there will be loss of face for the present Govt in the eyes of the soldiers.

6. May we request you to carry this important news /issue in your esteemed paper, magazine and TV Channel?

      With regards,

Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Chairman IESM
Mob: +919312404269, 0124-4110570
Email ID: satbirsm@gmail.com