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
