Says not all demands can be fulfilled in a democracy
NEW DELHI : Two days after the NDA government notified the much-awaited `One-Rank-One-Pension Scheme’ for ex-servicemen who have expressed their dissatisfaction, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday rejected the objections of ex-servicemen on the OROP, saying that everyone has a right to make a demand in democracy but not all demands can be fulfilled.
Maintaining that “maximum’’ demands of the veterans have been fulfilled, he said the judicial commission that will be set up, will look into the “problem areas.’’“Their main demand for same pension for same rank has been given. Rest is everything that we had declared (on September 5). Out of that, the confusion about Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) has been removed,’’ the Defence Minister said on the sidelines of a function here. He said that even if all demands were met, someone would ask for something else. He said the “basic core issue’’ has been addressed and if there is a problem, the judicial commission will look into that.
Parrikar was replying to questions on the sidelines of a function where he inaugurated the Central Data Centre, Army Cloud and Digi-Locker at the Army Headquarters as part of the Digital Army programme.
The notification for implementing OROP on Saturday night was outrightly rejected by the veterans. It also created confusion among serving officers as it makes a distinction between those already retired and those who opt for Pre-Mature Retirement (PMR) in future. “Personnel who opt to get discharged henceforth on their own request… will not be entitled to the benefits of OROP. It will be effective prospectively,” the notification said.
The OROP notification will bring over 24 lakh ex-servicemen and six lakh war widows under its purview. The veterans had demanded that the period for pension should be 2013-14 fiscal and not the calender year. Also, they wanted April 1 as the effective date instead of July 1. The notification said that in future the pension would be re-fixed every five years. Veterans had been demanding revision of pension every two years.
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Expert upset
New Delhi: Defence expert Major General (Retd.) P K Sehgal on Monday dubbed Parrikar’s comment on the implementation of ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme to be extremely insensitive and arrogant.
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