A government committed to fiscal prudence has agreed to Rs 12,000 crore in arrears, and an additional annual defence pensions bill of Rs 8-10,000 crore.
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“OROP as a principle has been accepted; full financial requirements have been fulfilled”.
“It is a matter of deep anguish that the various governments remained ambivalent on the issue of OROP“, Parrikar said. Have you ever seen that things are fulfilled100% and to everyone’s satisfaction?
Ex-servicemen, who have been on agitation for the last 85 days in Delhi, broadly welcomed the government’s decision on OROP which will cost the exchequer between Rs 8000-10,000 crore but said they would continue their agitation because a number of their key demands had not be met.
Hailing the PM for clearing the 42-year-old impasse on one rank one pension (OROP) for the veterans, Akbar said it would benefit 3 lakh ex-servicemen in Bihar.
India already pays out 545 billion rupees (Dh30bn) a year in pensions to former military personnel.
The political sparring over OROP, however, continued with Congress terming the package as a dilution of the ex-servicemen’s demands and BJP pointing out that the UPA had merely paid lip service to the cause by allocating a paltry Rs 500 crore for OROP. Many in the military felt that the only way left for them to correct this imbalance and erosion of their standing was to publicly agitate for OROP.
Addressing the media on the sidelines of an Engineers Conclave at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Parrikar said soldiers who have retired after following proper procedure will not be impacted in any way.
The indefinite fast by a group of veterans, some on whom started it on August 17, ended on the 21st day on Sunday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarified that soldiers who retire prematurely will benefit from implementation of OROP.
Regarding the formation of a committee, the veteran said the protesters want the government to form a committee which would directly be under the defence minister. The office bearers of the United Front of Ex Servicemen of Uttarakhand met here on Monday and deliberated on the Government proposals on OROP.
Yesterday, some ex-servicemen had demanded a five-member panel, with its deadline cut from six months to one month.
Pension will be re-fixed for all pensioners retiring in the same rank and with the same length of service as the average of minimum and maximum pension in 2013.
This according to Brigadier (retd) Gurmeet Kanwal, strategic analyst, is the single biggest welfare measure taken by any Government for veterans since Independence, a view echoed by MP Chandrashekhar.
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Pressing for March 31, 2014 as base date, Singh said if government sticks to the calender year, then December 31 should be the basis for fixing the benefits.
