OROP Agitation Continues Despite Efforts to Break Unity

NEW DELHI: Hordes of armed forces veterans descended at the Jantar Mantar protest site to be a part of the ‘Ekta rally’ organized to keep the pressure on the government on the issues that it has not settled to the satisfaction of the ex-servicemen.

The broad acceptance of the demand for One Rank One Pension (OROP) by the government had led the veterans to call of their hunger strike on September 6. But the main Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) is not satisfied with the outcome as was pointed out during the meeting. The military veterans want the government to review the pension every year instead of every five years; and expect the government to set up a five member and not a one man committee, to work out the details of OROP. Of these three members should be from the armed forces so that the issue is not left in the hands of the bureaucrats alone.

IESM President Major General (retd) Satbir Singh said, while addressing the veterans who were present in thousands,, “They are telling us that the base year for implementation should be 2013-14 which should, in fact, be 2014-15, which is not acceptable to us. The Defence Minister in his announcement had said that he will give the highest pension of the year, but now they are saying it will be the average of the year, which is going to save them 30 crores. They are filching 100-200 from our pension accounts by doing this.” The crowd responded to this by with a loud ‘shame, shame!”

Singh pointed out that OROP has been passed by Parliament and cannot be altered by anyone, but the Parliament.

Meanwhile, a veteran told The Citizen,, “They are giving billions in dole to Mongolia and to Bihar because of the elections, but denying us our basic right. They are saying it can’t be reviewed every year and proposing a review every five year, which is a total sham. It’s not that complex. Moreover, there is nothing like VRS (voluntary retirement) in the armed forces, you either take a premature retirement or are asked to leaveton medical grounds. But even those who take early retirement should be given benefits of OROP.”

Another protester who identified himself as an “Unknown Soldier” said that “ criminals like Lalu, Jayalalithaa, and Sukhram are entitled for the entire pension even if they don’t attend parliament for a single day and are involved in crimes, but no such privilege for soldiers who watch over them in -15 degrees climate.”

However, there are serious efforts to break the unity with an email campaign accused IESM of misappropriating funds collected at earlier rallies. "The officials of the IESM have not accounted for the funds collected at Jantar Mantar and other places. The hard earned donations of serving and ex-servicemen running into crores have not been accounted for by the officials and no records have been placed by the IESM in the meetings of UFESM," read the email sent to the media by UFESM General Secretary Dinesh Nain.

Col Anil Kaul, media advisor to the IESM, debunked the charges and said all the money has been accounted for and there’s no misappropriation.

The Dilli Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (DGPC), the overseeing body of Bangla Sahib Gurudwara in Connaught Place, provided free food to the veterans and their families from a truck brought to Jantar Mantar. There was an orderly queue as everyone patiently waited their turn.