Veterans to knock on SC door for OROP: loss of faith in politicians

Veterans feel that the recommendation, if implemented, may dismiss the very basis of OROP for the defense forces. It may be over two weeks since the government issued a notification regarding the implementation of the much-debated One Rank One Pension (OROP) for defense services veterans but disagreements persist over the fine print. In fact, the matter has now culminated with the veterans’ decision to approach the Supreme Court challenging the notification.  While the disagreements remain more or less unaltered – essentially over the number of years of revision — what has arguably added fuel to the fury is the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendation that OROP be implemented across the board for all the government pensioners. “There are seven pitfalls in the notification that were pointed out in September 2015. But they seem to have been given a go by. The notification is sounding the death knell of OROP. We at UFESM have rejected it in its present form. Acceptance by us and calling off the agitation is subject to removal of these seven discrepancies. The recommendations of seventh central pay commission are being studied. However on the face of it, the armed forces have again been given a raw deal,” said Colonel Anil Kaul, spokesperson of United Front of Ex Servicemen that has been at the forefront of the agitation for the OROP cause.  Veterans feel that the recommendation, if implemented, may dismiss the very basis of OROP for the defense forces. For the veterans, two new aspects have emerged: one, that the implementation of OROP across all government retirees is likely to put an additional burden of Rs 1 lakh crore on the pension budget which is almost 10 times higher the Rs 8,400 crore that the government had agreed to give out for OROP. “It is an irony then that the government took so much time to allot few thousand crores for OROP to veterans,” says a retired officer. Secondly, they feel that the blanket implementation will take the edge off the defense veterans demands vis a vis their civilian counterparts. With the veterans now taking the fight to Supreme Court, the solution has gone beyond political control — retired soldiers they have lost faith in the political leaders who have “broken” their election promise.