Giving credence to speculations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might make an announcement on One Rank One Pension (OROP) from the Red Fort during his Independence Day address to the nation, officials from the PMO on Wednesday, held discussions with representatives from the United Federation of Ex-Servicemen Movement (UFESM) protesting for early implementation.
InconclusiveHowever, the talks ended inconclusively and the stalemate continues, ex-servicemen groups said.
In a bid to reduce the financial burden on the exchequer, the government proposed that the base year for implementation be 2011 instead of 2014 as agreed earlier which has been rejected by the veterans.
“It was a back channel meeting to reduce overall outflow of government of India at 2011 level instead of 2014,” said Colonel (retired) Anil Kaul, media adviser for Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement.
Col. Kaul explained that as pension is calculated post-retirement and multiplies with time, pushing the date of implementation back would save the government a few hundred crores. “We have rejected it outright as this would affect mainly the other ranks (jawans),” he added.
