NEW DELHI : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is most likely to announce the much awaited implementation of the One Rank One Pension scheme tomorrow where he will address a rally in Mathura to mark the first anniversary of his government.
Sources in the Defence Ministry told UNI that all the issues relating to implementation of the scheme has been sorted out between the Defence and the Finance Ministry with only the formal announcement to be made.
In a preemptive move, the Opposition Congress has forcefully raised the demand for implementation of the OROP, saying that the decision in this regard was taken 14 months ago and the present government committed criminal in action by not passing the benefit to the soldiers, who fought for the country.
Political haggling apart, the issue of implementing the OROP had been much misunderstood. Going by the government’s definition, OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the 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 to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rates of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. After the announcement of the government’s acceptance of the principle of OROP for the Defence forces by the Finance Minister in his interim Budget 2014-15 speech, a meeting was called by the Defence Minister on February 26, 2014 to discuss the modalities for implementation of OROP.
The Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) was directed to initiate necessary steps in consultation with the three Services, MoD (Finance) and Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare to give effect to the decision. The Minister had emphasised that family pension and disability pension would be included. Necessary instructions were issued to the CGDA in this regard. The CGDA has issued a letter to all three Services calling for a consolidated proposal for implementation of OROP.
Another meeting, Chaired by the Defence Minister was held April 22, 2014 with the officers representing the three Services and the officers of Ministry of Defence and CGDA to discuss the proposal prepared and presented by the Service Headquarters (Army) on behalf of all the three Services on the implementation of OROP.
It was decided to constitute a Working Group under the Chairpersonship of CGDA for examining the proposal and preparing Government orders for implementation of OROP w e f April 1, 2014.
The Working Group deliberated the options for OROP. However, the Working Group could not arrive at any consensus and no clear recommendation was given in the report dated May 26, 2014 sent by CGDA for implementation. The report suggested some possible options for implementation of OROP. One of the options as suggested by the Working Group was examined and submitted to the Defence Minister. After the change of government at the Centre, a meeting was called by the then Defence Minister Arun Jaitley August 26, 2014 on the implementation of OROP. (AGENCIES)
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