Parrikar said earlier today that while it was the democratic right of ex-servicemen to protest against the government’s version of the OROP but added that they were being “misguided”.
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“This is unlike a soldier”.
“A medal is bestowed upon us by the nation for our duty and service and returning it is not the best way to protest”, said Group Captain SS Phatak who heads the pension division at the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement.
Brig. Kiran Krishan (Retd), convenor for north Haryana of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) said the veterans gathered at Major Sandeep Shankla war memorial in Panchkula, where the medals of over 150 veterans were collected. “Out of that, the confusion about VRS has been removed”, Parrikar said on the sidelines of a function here.
People, who are still protesting, seems to have been misguided and 95 per cent of the veterans’ community is satisfied.
They have listed seven deviations in the announcement, including annual equalisation, 2013-2014 financial year as the base year for calculating pension, taking the highest pension scale of 2013 as the base for calculation and not the average as announced by the government, not to link OROP with the seventh pay commission and accept that OROP once implemented will continue forever and in perpetuity.
The protesting ex-servicemen also met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and briefed him about the OROP notification.
He also alleged that the government of practising unsafe game of deception, hypocrisy and deceit on the issue. Independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, urged the veterans not to return their medals and asked them to engage with the Commission set up for redressal of pending issues.
“After that we marched till mini secretariat in Sector 1, Panchkula and handed over the medals to additional deputy commissioner, Panchkula, as the district collector was away for a few other programme with the chief minister”, he told PTI in Chandigarh. Samarth is first in the series of six 105m offshore patrol vessels and has been built by Goa Shipyard.
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It will be the biggest ship joining Coast Guard fleet.
