All You Should Know About One Rank One Pension. Indian Army, one of the elite force in the world which had made a lot of tasks in order to maintain national pride and to keep the nation on a secure path. Army had seen many scams and cases like Bofors scam Jeep scam just after independence and many more. But most recently Army is in the news because of the right that a pensioner deserves. Indian Army currently has about 11 lakh serving soldiers and about 25 lakh ex-servicemen who devoted their entire life to serve the nation. Now it is the responsibility of the country to take care of them. For that, a scheme named as One Rank One Pension is being planned to execute to retain equality amongst same rank pensioners regardless of their pension date.
What is One Rank One Pension?
OROP is a scheme which is in news since the era of Mrs. Indra Gandhi. Pay commission which sits after every 10 years gives recommendations on how the salary and allowances to be increased in order to cope up with the current inflation rate. Every soldier whether an officer or a jawan, when retired, gets pension according to the last salary he withdraws from his account. A soldier who retires before implementation of pay commission gets less pension as compared to the one who got retired from Army just after the implementation of the recommendation of pay commissions. What all the retired soldiers want is that the salary of every ex-serviceman of the same rank must get the same pension. OROP is expected to benefit about 6 lakh widows and families of several brave soldiers who sacrificed their life for the country.
Previous Steps Taken:
In theory, UPA Government had accepted the scheme many a times but didn’t implement.
UPA government had allotted 500 crores for the implementation of this scheme in their budget and NDA government allotted 1000 crore in their budget which was presented by Mr. Arun Jaitley. But this fund seems to be not sufficient and Minister of State for External Affairs, General V K Singh asked the finance minister to sanction more fund to fulfill the scheme. The scheme will initially require 8000 crores and several crores further.
Current Status of OROP:
Modi was expected to make some declaration on the first rally in Mathura that was scheduled on the completion of one year of the NDA in power. Retired Army personals were expecting some announcements regarding this issue which can give some relief to them. But nothing was mentioned in the rally. Now after the failure of talks between the government and retired Army personals, they have decided to go on hunger strike as the government has failed to implement the one rank one pension scheme. The hunger strike is expected to be started from 15 June, this year.
Mr. Rahul Gandhi is doing his job to counter the actions of NDA government and is meeting with ex-servicemen in order to help them in getting their rights.
Conclusion:
Indian Army had done an incomparable job on borders and had always stood ahead in securing the nation in every terrain and all seasons. One rank one pension is a right of all ex-servicemen who needs care from the government. They must be given their right that they deserve.
