One Rank, One Pension is still boiling in Delhi

NEW DELHI, AUG 20, 2015:  The protest in demanding for the implementation of One Rank One Pension scheme by the ex-servicemen has reached 87 days here in Jantar Mantar on Thursday. The protestors are likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week. However the dates have not been fixed yet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged in his Independence Day (16 Aug 2015) address that he has yet to reach a resolution on the One Rank One Pension (OROP) demand of ex-servicemen, but promised that his government had “accepted OROP in principle”.

 

Colonel (Retd) Pushpender Singh (Ex-3 Grenadiers) and Havaldar (Retd) Major Singh (Ex-3 Sikh LI), began their hunger strike ‘fast-unto-death’ at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on August 16 demanding early implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP). They will continue their fast-unto-death till OROP is accepted. A day earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not announce a firm date for launching the scheme in his Independence Day address.

 

One Rank, One Pension (OROP), or same pension, for same rank and for the same length of service, irrespective of the date of retirement was the basis for determining the pension and benefits of Indian Armed Forces till 1973.

 

In 1973, the Indian National Congress (INC) government headed by Indira Gandhi, Prime minister, following the Third Central Pay Commission (3 CPC), in an “ex-parte” decision terminated OROP.  The termination of OROP caused disquiet in the Armed Forces and has since become a cause of public protests by Armed Forces Veterans.

 

An all party ten member Parliamentary Panel, known as the Koshyari Committee after its Chairman, examined OROP. The Koshyari Committee blamed the delay in implementing OROP on bureaucratic resistance and apathy. The Koshyari Committee unanimously found merit in OROP, and recommended its early implementation.

 

OROP, an increasingly politicised, and often a misunderstood and misrepresented issue, in the run up to the Indian general election of 2014, found favour with the INC, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The top leaders of these parties, including Sonia Gandhi of INC, and Narendra Modi of BJP, made repeated public commitments to implement OROP.

 

The defence pension budget for 2015-16, which includes about 4,00,000 defence civilians, is Rs 54,500 crores. Defence civilians, which includes the entire civilian bureaucracy in the Ministry of Defence, retire at 60, are mostly based permanently in Delhi, and are not be covered by OROP. It is alleged by ex-servicemen organisations that defence civilian bureaucracy, led by the Defence Secretary, has opposed grant of OROP. However, there is no evidence to support this contention. It is also alleged that in 2011, Neelam Nath, Secretary of Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (Poorva Senani Kalyan Vibhag) from 1 June 2009 to 30 September 2011, on instructions from AK Antony, Defence Minister, and Shashi Kant Sharma, Defence Secretary, in her deposition in front of the Parliamentary Panel that examined the grant of OROP to the Armed Forces, opposed the grant and implementation of OROP for the Armed Forces.

 

The Koshyari Committee however, disagreed with submissions by the Ministry of Defence and found “merit in the demand for One Rank One Pension by Armed Forces Personnel”, and urged the Government to implement OROP at the earliest.

 

The estimates of expenditure on account of OROP has undergone many revisions: according to early MOD estimates OROP was expected to cost Rs 3000 crores. The current estimates vary between Rs 8,000-9,000 crores. Close examination of the financial implications of OROP by experts reveals OROP is affordable, and that opposition to it is based on ‘specious’ grounds.

 

It has also established that the expenditure on military pension can be drastically reduced by implementing the recommendations of the by 6 CPC and Koshiyari Committee on the Lateral transfer and absorption of Ex-Servicemen in Civil Government organisation including Police Organisation as is the custom in many countries.

 

On 17 Feb 2015 Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister, approves proposal for implementation of OROP, estimated to cost Rs 8300 crores. The proposal is forwarded by the MOD, to Ministry of Finance on 17 Mar 2015, where it is still lying.

On 15 August 2015 (69th Independence Day) General Dalbir Singh Suhag, Chief of Army Staff, while addressing a rally of several thousand ex-servicemen in Jhajjar, Haryana, said that “The OROP will come out in the same principle as desired. It will be effective from 1 April 2014 and may be approved latest by April 30 this year. However, delay does not matter as arrears will be given”.

~ BRUCE K. THANGKHAL

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