OROP: Why ex-servicemen continue to protest
The definition of OROP accepted by the government in Parliament has equal pension for officers retiring in the same rank with equal length of service.
The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it has complied with a 2008 judgment regarding the implementation of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) on Tuesday, but almost three weeks after the government announced an OROP roll out, the ex-servicemen’s agitation at Jantar Mantar is far from dying down. The ex servicemen claim that the government-announced scheme is anything but OROP.
The definition of OROP accepted by the government in Parliament has equal pension for officers retiring in the same rank with equal length of service. In his September 5 announcement, the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that OROP would be implemented with retrospective effect from July 2014 and with 2013 as the base year. What this essentially meant was that that the veterans’ pensions shall match the pensions of those retiring in 2013 and that they would be given the arrears from July 2014.
The government also announced a one-member judicial committee to address the likely anomalies in the scheme. Most importantly, the scheme, written order of which is slated to be rolled out within a month, will involve revision of pensions every five years.
The government’s interpretation of OROP is unacceptable to the ex- servicemen community. They believe that each of these clauses is a violation of the basic definition of OROP as outlined by the Bhagat Singh Koshiyari Committee in 2012.
For instance, the five-year revision of pensions implies that a veteran’s pension will remain unchanged for five years. This will create multiple pensions for officers of one rank given that for five years – the gap between two revisions – many new retirees will leave the services with different pensions.
The ex-servicemen jokingly term the government’s five-year revision proposal as One Rank Many Pensions and still demand an annual revision.
Disagreement also continues over the judicial committee, as the ex- servicemen are seeking a five-member committee rather than the proposed one-man committee — with three of their own members, one representative from the government and one nominated member.
Last but not the least, there is a strong distrust of the bureaucracy. In fact, the government’s announcement to omit premature retirees from OROP – a clause which was reversed later – was viewed by veterans as a “last minute effort by bureaucrats to create troubles” in OROP.
For its part, the government has remained silent on the subject since its announcement of the roll out on September 5. Everything now depends on its final call in the order expected in October.
– Read at: Indian Express
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COMMENTS
– In response to Nathusingh Choudhary's Comment – I would Like to give few more Examples : 1)- They Differentiate Officer – Jawans. a)- Officers' Mrs. – Jawans / Ors' Wife. b)- Officers' Enclave – Ors' Quarters. Even they hesitate to call them Soldiers OR Men. Either they are Ignorant that even Army Chief / General /Air Chief / Navy Chief is / are Soldier/s OR deliberately they they …………….. If they are Not (R) Not – Jawans (Young Men) then what they are ? ? ?
When it comes to orop the officer class starts crying 'be united' ! When it comes to stinking discrimination of PBORs in CSD, ECHS and other public places, they will keep silence. Officers even feel shame to call themselves Ex_servimeman generally. However, they use the term Exsm without any hesistation if it is used for getting benefits related to exsm class. Which unity??
The fight for OROP will have to be fought by men and officers unitedly. The Govt (read bureaucrats) are trying their best to create differences between them. OROP is applicable equally to ALL ranks including Officers and Men. So please don't be misguided.
In the orop all observations and corrections are centred around officers. Who will fight for the OROP of Other Ranks -(the bottom most row of the pyramid structure of the defence). They get the least amount of pension. We should not forget the fact that officers and a sepoy of the lowest rank buy the commodity from the same market. I hope the General staff on the top will take up their case sympathetically before they fight for their share of pension benefit. We cannot consider them as a cattle class because top brasses in the structure can do nothing if the base is not strong mentally and physically. The victory is depending on their morale.
Mr. R' Chandran, you are very correct. This fact is known to Babu who administer. They know if lower rungs are broken what will happen? Operation Room cannot be at border to fight Enemy. Similarly Babu cannot pass order at Border to Jawan. We all know what Command And Control means? 1962 might repeat under this Govt. It is my main worry as War experienced senior sailor and senior citizen. There exists No Swaksha Bharat and Modi wave. IESM wave is initiated. It will spread in chain reaction. If officers will not care lower ranks first they will fail and we will take over. Do not worry. It is looked into.