Centre turns down key OROP demand, cites fiscal prudence
FM draws line on annual pension review, no end in sight for agitation
NEW DELHI: The government rejected on Monday a key demand by protesting ex-servicemen asking for parity in pensions that has held up negotiations with no end in sight to a hunger strike by former soldiers which has captured national attention.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the one-rank, one-pension (OROP) scheme couldn’t revise dues annually — as demanded by the former military personnel — as it wasn’t done anywhere in the world and would create a liability for future generations.
“I have my own formula on what OROP means. Somebody else may have their own formula on OROP but it has to be within a reasonable and rational criteria. You can’t have an OROP where pensions are revised every month or every year,”
Jaitley said. Ex- servicemen at the forefront of the demonstration, however, said they showed willingness to negotiate on the issue and refused to compromise any further.
“We have already shown our flexibility by agreeing to pension review after two years. We will not accept anything less than that,” Lt Gen Balbir Singh, president of the ex-servicemen association, told HT.
The OROP crisis has virtually pitted millions of ex-servicemen against the government.
If implemented, the scheme is expected to benefit over three million defence pensioners and half a million widows.
Veterans have been demonstrating at Jantar Mantar in the heart of Delhi for 78 days, refusing to back down from their principal demand of hiking pensions annually that caused talks to collapse last week.
The Centre has suggested a five-year gap between pension raises and has repeatedly stated it was committed to OROP.
“I have been very vigilant about fiscal prudence. We accept the principle (of OROP) but let us not create incidence which are going to set (precedent for) other segments of the society to also start demanding (the same),” Jaitley told a television channel.
The issue leapt back into the national spotlight after police forcibly removed ex-soldiers from Jantar Mantar before Independence Day in a move that earned widespread condemnation. Pressure has piled on the BJP in recent weeks with some ex-servicemen collapsing days into their hunger strike for a scheme that would guarantee equal pension to military personnel retiring in the same rank with same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement.
Jaitley said the Indian political thought process would not make “unreasonable concessions” merely on emotions. “Can the BSF do it? Can the CRPF do it? Obviously the thinking India will say it’s not the right step to take. You can’t create a liability that the future generations will have to pay,” he said.
The finance minister said the “only difficulty” was the “arithmetical translation” but added the government would safeguard the interest of soldiers who retire at 35 or 38 years of age “Some higher pension on a special formulation is understandable but it can’t be revised every year,” he said.
All personnel who retired before 2006 -- the year the sixth pay commission’s report became effective --receive lower pensions than their counterparts and juniors.