PM spends Diwali with troops, says OROP issue "resolved"

For the second successive year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today celebrated Diwali with troops and said the long-pending issue of One-Rank-One-Pension (OROP) "has been resolved" even as ex-servicemen kept up their protests against the "diluted" scheme.

"Today was a very satisfying day. Visited some important places along our western border that saw action in 1965," Prime Minister Modi said in a series of tweets after concluding his visit.

 

"It was great spending time with our troops & interacting with them. Their courage & patriotism inspires," he said in another tweet.

"My visit to these places comes when we are marking the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war. We salute everyone who fought in that war," he further tweeted.

"The places I visited were the places where our troops laid down their lives while defending our Motherland. We are proud of our armed forces," said another tweet by Modi.

Modi visited three military installations associated with the 1965 Indo-Pak war -- the Dograi War Memorial in Khasa, Asal Uttar Memorial near Valtoha and Barki War Memorial in Ferozepur district in Punjab, and interacted with the troops.

Against the backdrop of the continuing protests by several ex-servicemen against "diluted" OROP, Modi sought to assuage them saying any issue relating to it can be taken up with the judicial committee set up by government to make it "fool-proof."

"I would like (to see) that the inputs, if any, are given to the committee," Modi said.
"The Prime Minister said that the long-pending issue of One-Rank, One Pension has been resolved and it has been granted," an official release later said.

Modi said everyone wishes to spend Diwali with his or her family and therefore, just as he had visited Siachen last year, he has chosen to spend Diwali with the officers and jawans of the Armed Forces this year as well, according to the release.

"He said that as this year marked the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war, he has chosen to visit locations where the brave soldiers of the Indian Armed Forces had shed blood and made the supreme sacrifice during that war," it said.

At the Dograi War Memorial in Khasa in Amritsar, he placed wreath at the venue of one of the toughest battles fought and won by Indian forces on September 22, 1965.

He also laid a wreath at the Asal Uttar Memorial near Valtoha on the Amritsar-Khem Karan road in Punjab and at the tomb of Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid, a Param Vir Chakra recipient.