OROP to be announced but differences persist

New Delhi: The government is likely to make public the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme but differences persist with ex-servicemen on key issues, informed sources said on Friday. A draft of the scheme was ready and is likely to be made public soon, the sources said, adding the government had taken 2013 as the base year for pension. The date of implementation will be July 2014. The sources said an agreement had been reached between the government and veterans on both issues. But the government was sticking to its stand of reviewing pensions only once in five years, which is not acceptable to the veterans. The ex-sevicemen had agreed to go for revision once in two years, even as they said it would mean that 11 percent of the seniors who have retired would get lower pension than their juniors for a year. A key demand of the ex-servicemen is that juniors should not get higher pension that seniors at any time.