Army Veterans Back to OROP Protests, Return Medals to Government

Veterans will start returning their medals from today to protest the govt notification on the implementation of OROP.

Ex-servicemen start returning their medals during their agitation for One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme benefits and privileges at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)

Ex-servicemen will start returning their medals from today to protest the government notification on the implementation of One Rank, One Pension, which they have rejected.

The protesting ex-servicemen had also met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and briefed him about the OROP notification.

Rejecting objections against the One Rank, One Pension scheme by some army veterans, Parrikar had yesterday said that it is impossible to satisfy everyone.

“We have fulfilled the main one rank one pension demand including the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. This is a democracy and one has the right to put forth their demand, but they can’t expect it to be fulfilled every time. You fulfil one demand and another one springs up,” Parrikar told reporters.

Veterans have listed seven deviations in the announcement including annual equalisation, 2013-2014 financial year as the base year for calculating pension, taking the highest pension scale of 2013 as the base for calculation and not the average as announced by the government, not linking OROP with the seventh pay commission and accepting that OROP, once implemented, will continue forever and in perpetuity.