After the government issued notification for implementation of the One Rank One Pension scheme a section of protesting veterans said that they have rejected it. "This is injustice to the soldiers, we'll fight with the government in court. This notification is not accepted. This is "One Rank Five Pension" and not "One Rank One Pension," Major Gen(Retd) Satbir Singh said.
Some even said that the government may go ahead with the threat of returning their medals. "The desire to return medals will continue because this is more or less unacceptable," Major Gen.(Retd) PK Sehgel.
However, others were glad to know about the implementation notification but said that they would wait for the details. "We're happy but till we receive entire details, we can’t say anything," Colonel Kapoor on government issues OROP notification.
Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday confirmed that notification regarding One Rank, One Pension have been issued after addressing most of the contentious issue. "OROP notification issued. I am told that the most contentious issue of VRS has been removed thus addressing the major concerns of d veterans," tweeted Ram Madhav on Saturday evening.
"The wait is over. OROP notification issued," confirmed Sitanshu Kar, Ministry of Defence (MoD) Principal Spokesperson. In a series of tweets, Kar stated: "Pension of past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of pension of retirees of 2013 and the benefit will be from 1 July 2014. Pension will be re-fixed as per average of min and max pension of personnel retired in 2013 in same rank & same length of service. Pension for those drawing above the average shall be protected. Arrears will be paid in four equal half yearly instalments. All family pensioners including those getting Special/Liberalized family pension & Gallantry award winners to get arrears in one instalment. In future, the pension would be re-fixed every 5 years."
"Personnel who opted to get discharged, now on, on their request will not get benefits of OROP. It will be effective prospectively. Govt. will appoint a Judicial Committee to look into anomalies and submit its report in six months. The ex-servicemen on Friday had announced that they would intensify their demand for early implementation of the OROP scheme as per the 'approved and accepted' definition. They had also threatened to return their medals, and would observe a 'black Diwali' on November 11.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, however, had assured that the OROP scheme would be implemented before Diwali. "As you know it will happen before Diwali," Parrikar told reporters on Friday.
With agency inputs
