OROP 2 - Open letter to the Honorable Prime Minister and Defence Minister of India

Open letter to the Honorable Prime Minister and Defence Minister of India

Respected Sir,

In the 1980s Rajiv Gandhi, then the Prime Minister of India, had said that for every rupee targeted towards welfare and poverty alleviation only a fraction, 15 paise, reached the intended beneficiary.  Similarly, out of 23 thousand crores allotted for OROP, lion share has been diverted to the officers who are not entitled to OROP  being served up to 60 years of age.  The criteria for OROP is for those ranks of the Armed Force who are forced to discharge at an early age as per the  rules to maintain physical fitness, efficiency, and effectiveness of the Army and only Jawan/NCOs/JCOs are fulfilled the criteria for OROP.   However, all the money in the name of  OROP is being given to the officers which is against the basic principle of the constitution of India and Article 38 of the Directive Principle of the Constitution as officers enjoy full pay and perks up to the age of 60 years.  

Here are some examples of how the unholy coalition of officers of Service HQ and MOD  has been harming the interest of Jawans/NCOs/ORs and providing wrong, false, incorrect, misleading, fabricated input data to the Govt., which have been brought in the notice of Govt through our various memorandum.  The last memo was submitted on 10.01.2023:-

1.  Jawans/NCOs/JCOs were getting 75% pay as pension which was reduced after the 3d pay commission.  Later, Service HQ recommended during the 6th pay commission to grant 70% pay as pension however, they only used this demand as a tool to get their actual demands to shift Lt Col from pay band 3 to 4 and to include MSP in pension of Maj General and Lt Gen, fulfilled. 

2. During the 5th pay commission they reduced the pay of Hav, Nk and Sepoy to enhance the pay of officers.  Since then these three ranks are suffering. 

3. Lower rate of MSP to Jawans/NCOs/JCOs despite the fact that difficulties faced by Jawans/NCOs/JCOs are more than officers and Nurses in peace as well as the field.

4. They shifted Lt Col and Major served 21 years to pay band 4.  Accordingly,  Sepoy, NK, Hav should have been shifted to pay band 2 with grade pay starting from 2400.  Accordingly, the grade pay of JCOs should have been enhanced.  However, knowingly officers kept Jawans/NCOs/JCOs in low-grade pay for their own benefits. Grade Pay of constable, head constable and Asst Sub-inspector of Chandigarh Police is 3200, 3600 and 4400 respectively. Earlier Hony Commission was getting pay and pension equivalent to Major which was reduced later.

5.  GS pay is not being included to decide pension.

6. In the name of Lateral induction, privileges of fixation of the maximum of scale with rank weightage were withdrawn and later policy for lateral induction has never been formulated. 

7. Pay and pension of Jawans/NCOs/JCOs were multiplied by 2.57 whereas the pay of officers was multiplied by 2.67 to 2.81 in the 7th CPC which is a gross violation of the constitution. The lower rank of the Army should have been placed under pay matrix 4 instead of 3 and accordingly pay matrix of other ranks of NCOs/JCOs categories should have been enhanced. 

8. Concept of notional fixation and minimum guaranteed pension has not been implemented during 7th &CPC.

9. Disability pension of the officer was  5880 and jawan was 3510 as of 01.01.2006.  Thereafter, the rule for grant of disability pension changed from slab base to percentage base under the pressure of officers which resulted in a huge enhancement of disability pension of officers and now the disability pension of officers is from 57 thousand to 75 thousand whereas jawans are still around 11 thousand for 100% disability.  Accordingly, the ordinary family pension of officers was 5880 and the jawan was 3510 as of 01.01.2006 which is 57 thousand to 75 thousand for officers and merely around 11 thousand for jawans.

10. Group Z was merged with group Y to keep our minimum low. 

11. DGR provide businesses to security agencies of officers only .  Jawans employed as guards in their security agency are being exploited by the officers.  Strategically, the pension of jawans is kept low so that they have no option but to employ the agency of officers for survival. Accordingly, business for coal loading and transportation is being provided to the officers besides COCO Petrol Pump allotted to officers only by DGR.

12. Every Jawans/NCOs/JCOs discharged after the initial engagement period is entitled to OROP benefits however, intentionally they have been kept out of the purview of OROP in the name of  Pre matured retirement or discharge on his own request after 01.07.2014.

13. NCOs cadre is backbone of any ARMY.  See the organizational structure of US, NATO Army and other advance Army of the world and compare with  Indian Army how NCOs are being degraded since the 5th pay commission for benefit of officers which is against the interest of org and nation. 7CPC has also pointed out that a total number of discharged Def Pers, 43%  are from the rank of Hav and equivalent rank of Air Force and Navy vide their report para 10.2.5.  Earlier Pay of NK was equal to the primary teacher.

14.  Lower rate of DA should be granted to the higher rank whereas the same rate is being given to all ranks, as a result, an officer having a 1 lakh pension is getting  38 thousand DA which is equal to the pension of two jawans.  A higher percentage of DA should be granted to the lower rank so that same amount of DA is received by every rank.

Voice of Ex-Servicemen Society continues raising the voice of Jawans/NCOs/JCOs and submitting various memorandums but intentionally being ignored by the greedy and selfish officers.   In a memorandum dated 10 Jan 2023, we have demanded to revise OROP at least granting rank weightage or 75% pay as pension or equal rate of MSP so that Jawans/NCOs/JCOs can get justice.

Almost all the budget of 23 thousand crores has been given to officers who are not entitled to OROP  and also is a financially sound category. We, JCOs/NCOs/jawans of all three services are requesting the Govt to withdraw the OROP given to the officers and issue a fresh table by adding rank weightage or granting an equal rate of MSP to all combatant ranks.

VOICE OF EX-SERVICEMEN SOCIETY has planned to agitate against the illegal act in NEW Delhi with 50 thousand strength on 12 March 2023 if OROP given to the officers is not withdrawn and given it to the JCOs NCOs ORS.

Appeal to Jawans/NCOs/JCOs.  Please come out of organisations headed by officers who have not only collected huge money from you bus used your numbers for benefit of officers.

With best regards 

Bir Bahadur Singh 

National Coordinator 

Voice of Ex-Servicemen Society 

 Movement of Jawans/NCOs/JCOs

Rajeev Behal,  Legal, Punjab

Ram Singh Tanwar, VP, Rajshan 

9461046595

Dr Suresh Kumar Bhaker, Haryana -7404122179

Kishore Balla, in charge south

9246206653

JS Patial, HP

7807311126, 

Jiitender Dev, IT head

9891372555

Sudhir Patel, Gujrat 

Abhinash Kumar, Jharkhand