Dear
Veterans
Over the
last three months, we, the constituents of United Front of Ex Servicemen
(UFESM) have been diligently and honestly negotiating and talking with everyone
from the side of the Government or the BJP.
Col
Inderjeet Singh, Lt Gen BS Yadav and Maj Gen Satbir Singh, assisted by Gp Capt
VK Gandhi, Brig Kartar Singh, Wg Cdr CK Sharma, Hon Lt K Pandey, Hon Capt JS
Rathee and many others were always there to inform the Government of the facts
of OROP.
During
this period, all aspects of OROP have been discussed in great details with just
about everyone other than the Prime Minister.
Despite
all honest efforts, what the Government finally announced was nowhere near OROP
as defined by the Parliaments of February 2014 and June 2014. Just a "One
Time Increase" has been offered, with five-yearly reviews instead of the
present ten-yearly ones.
Because of
perceived apathy of the Government and after three months of continuous
protests by UFESM at Jantar Mantar, it was decided to hold the Ekta/ Solidarity
Rally on 12th September 2015.
For the
three days preceding the Rally, it was reported that many messages by SMS,
WhatsApp and Twitter were being sent out informing everyone that the Ekta Rally
had been called off! Personal threats against Gen Satbir Singh were received. A
heavy effort to malign individually everyone involved with the protests was set
afoot. This was followed up by many TV channels using runners at the bottom of
the screens, giving the same message.
UFESM
countered these efforts of those inimical to the sanction of OROP by releasing
advertisements in newspapers regarding the Ekta Rally. The contentions of UFESM
are:
Whilst the
Government has announced acceptance of the principle of OROP, there are serious
drawbacks that the country needs to know to appreciate why the agitation has
not been withdrawn.
OROP implies
“Same Pension for same rank, for same number of years of service rendered,
regardless of when retired and any future enhancements in rate of pension to be
passed to Past Pensioners automatically.”
There are many
contradictions in what has been announced by the Government and what actually
comprises OROP:
1
VRS: The Government has created avoidable confusion by including ‘VRS’ in their
announcement as VRS does not exist in the Defence Forces. However, those who
have taken Pre-Mature Retirement must come under OROP.
2
BASE YEAR: After having agreed to FY 13-14, the Government has now gone to some
never-heard concept of middle of calendar year!
3
ANNUAL EQUALISATION: This is the very core of OROP in order to ensure that no
Senior ever gets less pension than a junior and cannot be ignored by making
equalisation a five-yearly effort.
4
ONE-MAN COMMISSION: If the Govt were to agree to all the points put up by ESM,
there would be no need for any Commission. However, if unavoidable, it must be
a Committee of three ESM, one serving member with one person nominated by RM
and the report must be submitted in one month and NOT six months.
5
AVERAGE OF PAY SCALES: The Defence Minister had earlier assured that pensions
would be taken from “top of the pay scales” whereas now, the Government seems
to have gone to an unknown concept!
6
OROP INDEPENDENT OF CPC: Whatever awards accrue from OROP must be totally
protected from anything that Central Pay Commissions may give to Central
Government employees.
7
OROP CONCEPT ‘IN PERPETUITY’: Everything that is given to Defence Forces
pensioners are given in perpetuity for all times to come.
The changes proposed by the Government will
not save any significant amount of money for the Nation but will definitely
dilute and distort the definition of OROP which the Ex Servicemen have been
seeking for the last 40 years.
We are
pleased to report that the Ekta Rally was a huge, thundering success! Starting
from Friday evening onwards, many buses and vehicles of ESM had started coming
into Delhi. Many arrived by train or public buses, too. Whilst many made their
own arrangements for stay, many others were put up at Gurudwaras by UFESM. On
a conservative estimate, there were at least 200 vehicles that had come from
Rajasthan, UP, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttaranchal etc etc.
A serious
effort was made by the Government to stop many of the buses with ESM at
various entry points of Delhi.
And yet,
the attendance at Jantar Mantar has been reported by conservatives as about
20,000 to 25,000. Whereas, those who were there for the cause say that the
rolling number of people who have attended the Ekta Rally was 50,000!
There has
now been a total blackout of the reports on the Rally in all media. Whilst
virtually all channels had their OB Vans on the stand-bye, none of the cameras
were rolling. There is not even a mention of the Rally in this morning';s
newspapers.
Those who
were at Jantar Mantar speak in awe of the sea of humanity that was there, all
around. As far as the eye could see, there were the ESM and their families,
everywhere. Every time a question was asked, you could see tens of thousands of
arms waving in the air in agreement!
It has
been decided that the protest Relay Hunger Strike will continue at Jantar
Mantar till the Government agrees to give what OROP is actually about.
It is
requested that every Ex Serviceman who gets this message to please convey it
not only to all your ESM contacts and friends, but also to all your civilian
friends. We HAVE to fight the misinformation campaign and negative publicity
that the Government is doing with all our efforts to ensure that Ex Servicemen
are given due justice and equity for which this struggle is!
Wg Cdr CK
Sharma
Treasurer, UFESM/IESM
श्रीमती वीणा सिंह जी W/O श्री रमन सिंह के इलाज का खर्च मात्र 140,074,783 (चौदह करोड़ चौहत्तर हजार सात सौ तिरासी रुपया। जो छत्तीसगढ़ सरकार ने स्वीकृत भी कर दिया।
ReplyDeleteAnd they say they have to deprive the poor to pay OROP.