<p>After taking up farmers issue, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the Narendra Modi government for not implementing the “one-rank-one-pension” (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The initiative was cleared by the previous UPA government.Rahul met a delegation of ex-servicemen, including war widows, at the AICC headquarters here and assured them that he would put pressure on the Modi government to implement the scheme.<br /><br />“We (UPA) had allotted money and also taken a decision. One year has passed and this should happen at the earliest. We will pressurise the government and ask them to take a decision at the earliest,” Rahul said. Former defence minister A K Antony said that the UPA government had made a token allocation of Rs 500 crore after taking a decision in February last year to implement the scheme.<br /><br />But the implementation was caught in bureaucratic red tape and Antony had referred the matter to a panel chaired by the Controller General of Defence Accounts. However, the report with no clear recommendation was submitted on May 26 last year, the day the Modi government assumed office.<br /><br />The Centre referred the issue to a committee of secretaries and it is learnt that after the intervention of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, the differences have been reconciled and an announcement was expected at a rally to commemorate the first anniversary of the NDA government.<br /><br />On Friday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the “methodology of calculation” for OROP was still being worked out. <br /><br />The delay has led the Congress to suspect that the government was bent on diluting some provisions of the scheme.<br /><br />Former minister of state for defence and Congress leader Jitendra Singh accused the government of being anti-soldier. He said the UPA government first took an initiative on the issue in 2006, then in 2009 and 2013.</p>
<p>After taking up farmers issue, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the Narendra Modi government for not implementing the “one-rank-one-pension” (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen. <br /><br /></p>.<p>The initiative was cleared by the previous UPA government.Rahul met a delegation of ex-servicemen, including war widows, at the AICC headquarters here and assured them that he would put pressure on the Modi government to implement the scheme.<br /><br />“We (UPA) had allotted money and also taken a decision. One year has passed and this should happen at the earliest. We will pressurise the government and ask them to take a decision at the earliest,” Rahul said. Former defence minister A K Antony said that the UPA government had made a token allocation of Rs 500 crore after taking a decision in February last year to implement the scheme.<br /><br />But the implementation was caught in bureaucratic red tape and Antony had referred the matter to a panel chaired by the Controller General of Defence Accounts. However, the report with no clear recommendation was submitted on May 26 last year, the day the Modi government assumed office.<br /><br />The Centre referred the issue to a committee of secretaries and it is learnt that after the intervention of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, the differences have been reconciled and an announcement was expected at a rally to commemorate the first anniversary of the NDA government.<br /><br />On Friday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the “methodology of calculation” for OROP was still being worked out. <br /><br />The delay has led the Congress to suspect that the government was bent on diluting some provisions of the scheme.<br /><br />Former minister of state for defence and Congress leader Jitendra Singh accused the government of being anti-soldier. He said the UPA government first took an initiative on the issue in 2006, then in 2009 and 2013.</p>
