New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that his government is committed to the 'One Rank, One Pension' (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen.
“On OROP- the Govt is committed to OROP & there's no doubt about it,” PM Modi tweeted this morning.
The PM's remarks came a day after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that no timeframe could be specified for the implementation of OROP as a couple of administrative steps were still pending.
Parrikar had said a day earlier on Thursday that all the formalities for implementing the OROP scheme have been completed.
The PM's assurance has come just days after his NDA government completed an year in office.
In an interview to an English daily, the PM also took a dig at the opposition Congress for trying to politicise the issue.
"The previous governments don't have the right to speak about it because they did nothing when they were in power," Modi told the newspaper.
The PM informed that his government was "in constant discussions with the armed forces personnel to arrive at a please-all definition of OROP of which there are varied versions."
“Would it be proper for me to take a decision without keeping the armed forces personnel in the loop? So we are trying to arrive at a please-all decision," the PM said.
OROP scheme is aimed at ensuring that all retired soldiers, who have the same rank and the length of service receive the same amount of pension, irrespective of their date of retirement. Currently, all those soldiers who retired before 2006 receive less pension than their counterparts and even their juniors.
Protesting government's "delay" in the implementation of OROP, 1971 war veteran Wing Commander (Retd) Suresh Karnik had on Thursday boycotted a gallantry award function in Pune attended by Defence Minister Parrikar.
