OROP notified, 25L to benefit

The NDA government on Saturday finally issued the official notification on the implementation of one-rank, one-pension (OROP) scheme which will benefit 25 lakh retired military personnel and their families.

The base year for fixing the pension would be 2013 and the benefit will come into effect from July 1, 2014.

In future, the pension would be revised every five years, says the official statement. A section of the protesters, however, were against the government proposal on five-yearly revision.

They wanted pension revision every year, which the government stated was administratively impossible.

OROP will cost the exchequer about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crore and will increase in future. The expenditure on arrears would be Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 crore. Maj Gen (retd) Satbir Singh, chairman of Indian ex-servicemen movement who led the negotiations with the government, said the order was not acceptable to them and the agitation would continue. They had threatened to return their medals.“We will study the fine print and talk to our lawyers before deciding on the future course of action,” said Singh.