New Delhi, September 2
Posted at: Sep 3 2015 1:11AM
The likely inclusion
- The government is likely to include a compensation for soldiers retiring before age of 40 and fix a tenure for revision of pensions to equalise them as per ranks and years of service
- It will take into account the very basic criteria that the pensioners get compensated for having “sticking their neck out” for defending the country and don’t feel let down
The government is likely to notify
the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ (OROP) scheme, but as per its own definition. This
could possibly include a compensation for soldiers retiring before age of 40
and a fixed tenure for revision of pensions to equalise them as per ranks and
years of service.
It will take into account the very
basic criteria that the pensioners get compensated for having “sticking their
neck out” for defending the country and don’t feel let down.
The Bihar Assembly elections are
also driving the government to finalise the OROP. Today another meeting was
held on the matter to bridge the gaps.
The government formula was listed
out by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley two days ago when he laid down a few ground
rules for implementing the OROP, a pre-poll promise made down the BJP.
He ruled out any annual pension
revision. In the talks between the government and the ex-servicemen, the
government had proposed that the hike in pensions — to make them equal for same
rank and same length of service — would be done once in five years.
The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement
(IESM) at first agreed for a biennial (once in two years) equalising of
pensions, but later withdrew the concession and demanded an annual
equalisation. But indications are that a middle path may be worked out on
tenure for revision of pensions.
Sources said the Government has made
its best offer to the veterans and wants to tread a path that does not open a
pandora’s box with similar OROP-type demands from other services like
paramilitaries.
The system of equalising the pension
is crucial as the OROP entails same pension for all those who retired in the
same rank with equal length of service. Ex-servicemen sitting in Dharna have
been asking for the OROP without dilution of the recommendations made by the
Bhagat Singh Koshyari Committee.
Koshyari,
who headed the Rajya Sabha Petitions Committee, said in December 2011: “Uniform
pension be paid to armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the
same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, and any
future enhancement in the rates of pension be automatically passed on to the
old pensioners”.
