1. OROP whose full form is ‘ONE RANK ONE PENSION was the key promise made by our honorable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi during his national election campaign.
This scheme is made exclusively for ex-servicemen. During one such national election rally, Mr. Narendra Modi had promised ex-servicemen for OROP scheme which is regarded as a key feature of his national election rallies
2. From July 1, 2014, this scheme will be effective with arrears that will be paid in four half-yearly installments. Widows and war widows will get arrears in a single installment. The base year for calculating the pension has been fixed at 2013. The protestors protested without any violence for the ‘ONE RANK ONE PENSION scheme.
3. The BJP government as per the defense ministry report has proposed to take the average of the maximum and minimum pension paid per rank in 2013 and pay the average to the ex-servicemen who are below the average while protecting those who earn above-average pensions in their rank. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar announced the ‘ONE RANK ONE PENSION scheme.
4. Estimation shows about 2.45 million ex-servicemen and six lakh war widows are going to get benefits from this scheme. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and GOC-in-C, Southern Command, Lt Gen Ashok Singh at the Sainik Samman Samaroh in Pune for discussions regarding the ‘ONE RANK ONE PENSION scheme.
5. According to our honorable Defence Minister Mr. Parrikar the cost of OROP at present will be around 8,000-10,000 crore INR which is expected to increase in coming years. The expenditure on arrears is estimated to be around 12,000 crore INR. At present, the the pension bill of the defense ministry stands at 54,000 crore INR. Veterans intensify their agitation for the ‘ONE RANK ONE PENSION scheme.
6. Ex-servicemen who opted for pre-mature retirement are not included in the OROP scheme.
The major reason shown by the Defence Minister according to Major Gen Singh is that the army doesn’t have VRS ( i.e Voluntary Retirement Scheme) but ex-servicemen whose pre-mature retirement was valid and legal like quitting the service for the injuries that occurred to them during the war which disabled them are included in OROP scheme. Ex-servicemen show their medals with pride while agitating for the ‘ONE RANK ONE PENSION scheme.
7. It is said that after long 42 years of long and hectic demand OROP has finally come into existence. Ex-servicemen during the agitation for OROP at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi
8. It is understood that on Friday in the RSS meeting OROP draft proposal was circulated and it was decided that this scheme should be commenced from July 2014.
9. Even though ex-servicemen wanted the revision of pension after every 1 or 2 years still the government decided to hold the revision of pension after every 5 years. So agitation still continues as many ex-servicemen are against this decision made by the government and many more are joining them to support them in this agitation. Union Minister V K Singh’s Daughter Joins OROP Agitation.
10. Veterans rejected the defense ministry proposal of 1 member judicial commission to decide on anomalies regarding the OROP scheme in 6 months. Veterans are asking for 5 member team which should include 3 veterans.
