New Delhi, Nov. 9 : The chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, Major General (Retd.) Satbir Singh, on Monday dubbed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s recent remark on the implementation of ‘One Rank, One Pension’ scheme as extremely unfortunate and accused him of turning back on his assurance.
“The statement by the Defence Minister is an unfortunate one. He is turning back on his assurance given to us. The notification given is not ‘One Rank, One Pension’; it is ‘One Rank, Many Pension’. It is such a saddening matter that Defence Minister told us one thing and now under the influence of ‘Babus’ he is saying something else. We oppose this statement and reject it,” Major General (Retd.) Singh told ANI.
Rejecting objections against the One Rank, One Pension scheme by some army veterans, Parrikar today said that it is impossible to satisfy everyone.
“Look, we have fulfilled the main one rank one pension demand including the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. This is a democracy and one has the right to put forth their demand, but they can’t expect it to be fulfilled every time. You fulfil one demand and another one springs up,” Parrikar told reporters here today.
The IESM chairman further urged the Prime Minister to re-issue the OROP notification and implement the original scheme.
“We urge the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister to re-issue the notification, the original OROP notification,” he said.
The government had earlier notified the implementation of the OROP scheme that will guarantee equal pension to military personnel retiring at the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of the date of retirement.
The notification, however, failed to impress veterans and they are continuing with their agitation.
The veterans also announced that they would return their medals and would observe a ‘black Diwali’ on November 11. The veterans are also gearing up to restart their ‘fast unto death’ at Jantar Mantar beginning next week.
Veterans have listed seven deviations in the announcement, including annual equalisation, 2013-2014 financial year as the base year for calculating pension, taking the highest pension scale of 2013 as the base for calculation and not the average as announced by the government, not to link OROP with the seventh pay commission and accept that OROP once implemented continue forever and in perpetuity. (ANI)