OROP OPS MAHASANGRAM :- SITREP AS AT 1800 HRS 28 AUG 2015

OROP OPS MAHASANGRAM :-
 SITREP AS AT 1800 HRS 28 AUG 2015

Indian Ex Servicemen Movement

Anil Kaul August 28 at 7:44pm     NEGOTIATIONS: OROP From a week prior to the 69th Independence day a series of meetings between UFESM reps and Governmet/government appointed officials have been taking place. Some information, of the dramatis persona, the locations of the meetings and the discussions there on are doing the rounds. The media is reporting the same from, firstly its own sources in government and secondly as per briefings given out by the media centre of the UFESM.  First Attempt at Resolution: As a possible run up to the 15th of Aug and a fallout of the ultimatum of escalation from 16th Aug by UFESM if no announcement is made that day. The government emissary was Gen VP Malik the former COAS, the meetings were overseen by the good offices of Mr Rajeev Chandrashekhar, MP with the COAS and fin ministry as well as PMO officials in attendance. The UFESM team comprised of Lt Gen Balbir Singh, Maj Gen Satbir Singh & Gp Capt VK Gandhi. The discussions veered around a grand reduction of approximately 4-600 Cr from the worked out figures by MoD of Rs 8293 Cr. The way suggested was for UFESM to accept 2011 as the base year of fixation that would imply that there would be no fixation as it was in 2011 that pensions were last fixed, secondly to push the payout date forward from 1/4/2014 to 1/4/2015, finally that there would be no yearly review of pension and that reviews would be limited to awards of successive pay commissions.  Since this was against the very spirit of Parliamentary acceptance of OROP, Not only did UFESM reject the proposal unequivocally but the Government appoint interlocutor Gen Malik recused himself within 48h.  The government reps did request UFESM to call off the agitation and go slow on the escalation for a period of ten days. The first part was rejected but the second part was considered for implementation. However Col Pushpendra Singh & Hav Major Singh refused all efforts to the cotrary and went on Fast-unto-death (FUD) wef 16th Aug. The other points of escalation came into effect the same day.  These were: - 1.15th August declared as a black day for ESM. 2. Boycott of all government run/sponsored functions will be enforced. 3. Black flags and Black arm bands will be displayed by all ESM 4. RHS to continue. 5. FUD will nor be discouraged unless medical condition warrants As a result, no announcement was made Second Attempt at Resolution: Exactly ten days from Independance day that is on 25 Aug the system of meetings re-started. Since then there have been the following meetings almost on a daily basis. For all meetings only General’s Balbir & Satbir have attended in presence of COAS except the last one that was set up by Lt Gen NS Malik of the BJP ESM cell.     1. With the NSA Mr Ajit Doval. 2. With Mr Nripendra Mishra Spl Secy in PMO 3. With JS PMO Mr.Anurag Jain 4. With HM Shri Rajnath Singh. Trend of Proposals The trend of discussions I nitially followed the same proposal as that of pre independence day. Since UFESM did not rescind from their stand of “No acceptance outside the definition of OROP as accepted by Parliament” , the government gradually started relenting and started giving counter proposals. These are summarized as below: - 1. Instead of insisting on base year being 2011 they would consider the base uyear as 2013-14 as per vote on account & finance bill 2014.  2. The pay out date be pushed forward from 1/4/14 to 1/4/15 3. There would be no provision of review of pensions except at the time of deliberations of successive pay commissions. These were rejected outright as unacceptable in totality.  In the next round with Spl  Secy PMO the following was proposed.  1. Instead of insisting on base year being 2011 they would consider the base uyear as 2013-14 as per vote on account & finance bill 2014.  2. The payout date be pushed forward from 1/4/14 to 1/1/15. UFESM accepted considering from 1/6/14.  3. There would be no provision of review of pensions except at the time of deliberations of successive pay commissions. Once again the UFESM members walked out.  The latest round was held on 27 Aug with JS PMO and government came down to the following lines. 1. Instead of insisting on base year being 2011 they would consider the base uyear as 2013-14 as per vote on account & finance bill 2014.  2. The payout date be pushed forward from 1/4/14 to 1/9/14.  3. There would be a provision of review of pensions once every five years against the proposal of once a year or once at least every two years.  The UFESM retracted its offer of acceptance of payment from 1/6/14 and rejected this proposal too. The underlying reason being the review of pension yearly or once in two years is the heart and soul of the OROP proposal.  This is for Information of all veterans and could be passed on to various groups and sites as deemed appropriate.  The above has been authorized for release by Gp Capt VK Gandhi VSM as desired by the Principal advisors of UFESM. Col Anil Kaul,VrC Media Advisor UFESM 28 Aug 2015.