O R O P : VETERANS DON'T NEED ************** INDIA'S FIFTH COLUMN

                          VETERANS DON'T NEED

                           INDIA'S  FIFTH  COLUMN


                

Dear Fellow Veterans, 

Press release as pasted below has been sent to the media.
Let’s see how many publish it. 

It has also been sent to some MPs whose
mail IDs are with me , with a false hope that some of those worthies
might take note of it. 

Regards,

                                          Harwant 

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                        PRESS RELEASE 

                 EX-SERVICEMEN REJECT 

                            ‘DILUTED’ 

                                 AND 

                          ‘TRUNCATED’

                ONE RANK ONE PENSION 

1. In a layman’s language, One Rank One Pension 

(OROP). means that no
senior (with more length of 

service) military person would get
less pension than his 

junior (less length of service) of the same
rank. The 

Parliamentary(Koshiyari) Committee defined it, that the, 

“OROP implies that 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 This implies  

bridging the gap between the rate of pensions
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.” 

2. The Govt’s acceptance of the OROP on 05 September 

was due to
Ex-Servicemen’s ongoing four decades long 

agitation and under the RSS
pressure, as also to enhance 

its chances of winning the forthcoming
Bihar assembly 

election. The Raksha Mantri stated on implementation
of 

the OROP, that the pension would be equalized after 

every five
years, instead of it being done annually, and 

that the figures would
be ‘mean’ of the maximum and 

minimum pensions of the same rank and
length of 

service. The United Front of Ex-Servicemen (UFESM) 

completely rejects this ‘Diluted’ and ‘Truncated’ OROP, 

as it has
destroyed the very definition, accepted in the 

Parliament , by both
the previous UPA and the present 

NDA Govts. Following issues are
highlighted:-

 (a) If implemented, it will be One Rank And Five Pensions , whereas, what had been assured and approved in the Parliament is “One
Rank One Pension”.

 (b) Diluted OROP will result in seniors drawing less pension than
the juniors, which is against the Hon'ble Supreme Court’s judgment
and hence not acceptable. 

(c) Mischievously , VRS was introduced in the note read out by
the Raksha Mantrti , whereas the Defence Services have no such ‘Golden
Handshake Scheme’. We have premature retirement for those who retire
after completing minimum pensionable service and for whom 

implementation of the OROP is mandatory . Any denial, 

besides being
illegal will be gravely unjust. 

(d) The Govt has claimed that calculating annual equalisation
would be a ‘mathematical nightmare’. Nothing can be farther from truth
as the software already exists for annual equalisation, as per the
approved definition by the Parliament, by the press of a button. 

(e) On 16 February’15 the Govt had stated in the Hon'ble
Supreme Court that it would implement OROP within three months. That
was NOT done. Again on 08 July the Govt stated in the Hon'ble Supreme
Court, that it would implement it within a week, only to go back on
its 

commitment. Is this ‘good governance’? Why this 

injustice to the
soldiers? 

(f) At Chandigarh, on 11 September ’15 , the Prime Minister
said that he had to deprive the poor to implement OROP. This is an extremely disrespectful and demeaning statement to the dignity of the
soldiers and has caused them extreme anguish . As almost all soldiers
come from poorest of the poor background, giving them some financial
justice must not be resented and spoken of in terms the Prime Minister
has done . 

(g) Why is the Govt not talking of expenditure incurred on
account of Non Functional Upgradation (NFU) awarded to 58 Group A
services - and, now even police and para military forces are including
in it, by the High Court? This is a whooping Rs 21000 crores per year
and will reach Rs 30,000 crores annually! In fact this is the
sacrifice of the poor man’s money which is paid for “Non- Functioning”
of the Babus and vast canteen subsidies of the MPs.

 (h) It is a clear failure of the society if the soldiers need to
descend to the streets to ask for their rights
3. To protest against the Govt’s anti Ex-Servicemen stance, a
huge Ekta Rally was held at the Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on 12 September ‘15. About 200 buses going for the Rally were stopped on
the outskirts of Delhi and the media was gagged by the Govt .Now to
defame the Ex-Servicemen, some articles have suddenly been published
which appear to be at the behest of the Govt .

 4. In view of the foregoing, we strongly demand that the
above mentioned anomalies be rectified and the O.R.O.P. be implemented
as per its original definition, accepted by the Parliament and a
‘Notification’ to that effect be 

issued immediately. 

 {BRIG HARWANT SINGH (RETD)} , 

President
The All India Defence Brotherhood (Regd)

 (A constituent of the United Front of Ex-Servicemen) 

 54, Phase -7 , Mohali , (Pb) } .

 Phones :- 09814432554 and 

08054397206