Sh Rajnath Singh
President, BJP
Home Minister Govt of India
North Block
New Delhi
02
June 2014
Sub: ISSUANCE OF
GOVERNMENT ORDER FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP) AND OTHER
PRESSING ISSUES RELATED TO MILITARY VETERANS
Dear Sh Rajnath Singh ji,
Please accept our heartiest
congratulations for the great achievement of BJP under your leadership. This
was written on the wall, your able and decisive direction to the party has led
to this grand victory. Election campaign under you and Sh Narendra Modi's leadership was very effective and
efficiently communicated to every citizen of India. Development agenda has
shown that people of India are now looking for positive change and have risen
above the divisive policies practiced by many. On behalf of the ex-servicemen
family, the IESM extends felicitations to you and your team. We are also glad
that you have been given this responsibility and now we can expect very clear
directions from Home Ministry.
The Military Veterans family has
given full support to BJP in this great run for the elections. Our faith in Sh
Modi's leadership has been strengthened and ex-servicemen are happy that the
country will get a stable Government. Ex-Servicemen are also happy that now
India will get a Government which will mean business and will work for
improving security of the country. IESM also congratulates the wisdom of
Indians who have decisively elected a Government with full majority and expects
some tough decisions for the security of India.
Ex-servicemen would like to draw
your attention to some of their pending and pressing issues which were also
included in the BJP manifesto, the foremost being OROP. The party had promised our
delegation(s) before the elections that as and when BJP Government is
instituted, you as Party President will ensure approval of our demands. Time
has now come for implementation of OROP and redressal of other pressing demands
of our veterans. You are aware that UPA Government had announced OROP in the
Parliament on 17 Feb 2014 but failed to issue Government order for
implementation in last three months of its rule. Armed Forces Pay cells have
worked out the tables for OROP for all ranks but the Defence Ministry, based on
inputs emanating from lower level bureaucracy and the Defence Accounts
Department, is hesitating in issuing the implementation letter. There is a
clear definition of OROP given at Para 3 of the Rajay Sabha Petition Committee
(headed by Sh Bhagat Singh Koshiari) Report on OROP which was presented to the
Rajya Sabha on 19 Dec 2011 and also is given in the minutes of the meeting
chaired by the last Raksha Mantri on 26 Feb 2014 which is as under :-
OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed
Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service,
irrespective of their date of retirement, and any future enhancement in the
rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This
implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners
and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension,
to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.
It further implies that Pensions
of past defence retirees will be equal to that of a person with same rank and
length of service and same group retiring wef 01 Apr 2014, and future
enhancement in the rates of pensions will be automatically passed to the past
pensioners. There is a inbuilt safety that a junior rank will not get pension
more than a senior rank irrespective of their date of retirement. Protection of
seniority of rank is very important in Armed Forces as hierarchy in Armed
Forces is determined by Rank.
UPA Govt did not have the will to implement
the announcement made in interim budget because they had announced this for
political reasons and to gain confidence of Ex-servicemen during elections.
Ex-servicemen never had faith in sincerity of UPA Government and hence did not
support them despite the announcement of OROP.
UPA had earlier also claimed giving OROP but never issued any orders. So
much was the anti-military veteran attitude of the UPA that it went on to
approve thousands of appeals against disabled and war disabled soldiers in the
Supreme Court against disability pensionary benefits granted to them by various
High Courts and Armed Forces Tribunals only on the ground that such judicial
decisions were against ‘Govt Policy’. Rather than changing the policies and
bringing them in line of judicial verdicts, the MoD continued to file appeals
against the same based on misleading file notings of lower level functionaries
in the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) of the MoD thereby bringing
massive discontentment in the military community.
Ex-servicemen have full faith in
the promises made by you, as President of BJP, and are looking forward for a
swift and decisive action from you. You had promised to IESM in a meeting on 09
September & 7 November 2013 that OROP will be implemented at the earliest.
We are now looking forward to you to honour your commitment by issuing the
implementation letter as per approved definition of OROP. Some of the other
important points which would need your urgent attention are given below:
1. Grant of OROP as recommended by Koshiari Committee and as
announced in the Parliament. Government order for implementation of OROP as per
approved definition needs to be issued on priority as already prepared by the Headquarters
of the defence services.
2. Immediate
unconditional withdrawal of ALL pending appeals filed by the Ministry of Defence
against disabled soldiers, war disabled soldiers and military widows in the
Supreme Court and review of all other appeals filed against other defence
pensioners by an independent committee with due representation of stake-holders
so that policies can be rationalised.
3. Formation of Military Veterans’ Commission headed by and manned
by sensitised personalities with military background.
4. Job employment upto 60 yrs, that is, upto the age of
retirement on the civil side, for all ex-servicemen at levels commensurate to
their last held levels in the defence services.
5. Placing the Armed
Forces Tribunal (AFT) under the Ministry of Law and Justice rather than the
Ministry of Defence as is the case at present, in line with the decision of the
Supreme Court in Union of India Vs R Gandhi [2010 (6) SCR 857] since the
current functioning of the AFT displays acute conflict of interest since the
AFT is supposed to pass all orders against the MoD and the same MoD happens to
be its parent/controlling/administrative Ministry. It is also requested that
AFT be given powers of civil contempt to ensure implementation of its orders
since currently the AFT is toothless and cannot get its orders implemented.
6. Representation of Ex-servicemen and stake-holders in all committees
made to decide welfare of military veterans since as per the current
dispensation, the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare issues policies which are
forcibly imposed upon military veterans without taking the views of
stake-holders into consideration. On the contrary, the Department of Pension
and Pensioners’ Welfare on the civil side is much more sensitive to the
requirements of its pensioners. Steps may also be taken to include a member of
the armed forces and a member of the military veteran community into the 7th
Central Pay Commission that has already been notified.
7. Grant of Non-Functional Upgradation (NFU) to commissioned
officers at par with other equivalent Group A civil officers, which is a long
pending demand of the defence services.
8. Grant of third Assured Career Progression (ACP) to Other
Ranks (OR) before retirement at a very young age between 35-40 years. It may be
recalled that the 3rd ACP is currently theoretically admissible to
Other Ranks after 24 years of service by which time most of the OR have already
retired.
9. Improvement in Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme
(ECHS).
IESM is very hopeful that NDA
Government would soon issue Government Orders for implementing OROP as per the
definition approved by Koshiari Committee and announced in the Parliament. IESM
is also hopeful that other pending points, agreed by you or included in the BJP
manifesto, will also get your special attention and be implemented forthwith.
IESM is looking forward to an
efficient and stable Government and is very hopeful that security environment
in the country will improve.
From our side, we assure you of
all possible assistance in all your endeavours towards promoting nationalism
and good governance.
We are with you.
With regards,
Maj
Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Chairman
IESM
Copy to
Shri Arun Jaitley,
Hon’ble Raksha Mantri
Ministry of Defence
South Block, New Delhi-110011
|
With a
request for
personal intervention to get the issues mentioned above resolved at the earliest, by duly taking into account the sentiments of military veterans. |
Sh Ravi Shankar Prashad, Minister of Law and Justice, Shastri Bhawan,
New Delhi-110001
|
With a request to
take immediate action with regard to Points Nos 2 and 5 referred above. |
General VK Singh (Retd), Member of Parliament, Minister of State for (Independent Charge) for
Development of North-East States and MoS Ministry of
External Affairs
|
With a
request to
use your good offices in getting the issues addressed. |
Colonel
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Member of
Parliament,
|
With a request to
use your good offices inetting the issues addressed. |
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