If the government is working towards resolving the One Rank One Pension standoff, it will have to make an announcement in the next 48 hours, considering the Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule for the Bihar Assembly Elections on Monday evening.
Media reports quoting government sources indicate that the government is readying to make an announcement before the Model Code of Conducts kicks in.
According to NDTV, that claims to have accessed the government’s draft proposal the government had laid out Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crore annually for the pension package and proposes to make OROP effective from 2014.
However, veterans who’ve been protesting at Jantar Mantar for the last 82 days want their pensions to be revised every two, if not one year. The government, however appears to be adamant on not allowing a revision before five years.
In fact, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had ruled out annual revision of pensions, saying that they do not happen anywhere in the world.
However, Chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, Major General (retd.) Satbir Singh today threatened to escalate the protest if the government does not agree to all their demands.
Implementation of One Rank On Pension is expected to initially cost the state exchequer Rs 8,3000 crore.
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