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Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Wait for final OROP order for clarity: Manohar Parrikar

With confusion surrounding who among the retirees will get the benefits of One Rank, One Pension, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today asked all those concerned to wait for the final order, which will "explain it properly".


“You have to wait for the final order (on OROP) which will come. Why is there so much excitement till then? The PM has made it amply clear that those who are being allowed to retire through proper procedure will not be (adversely) impacted. You need to wait for the exact wording,” he told reporters on the side lines of an Engineers’ Conclave.

He also clarified that the concept of ‘Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) does not exist in the Armed Forces.

“In the Armed Forces even if you apply, you may not get voluntary retirement, unlike (in) civilian (service), where you can get it. In the Armed Forces, you can be refused. There are many people who because of health reasons apply and the Armed Forces also want them to retire and, if that happens before the minimum service requirement, then they donu2019t get pension.

“We will explain this properly, no one should unnecessarily create confusion on it,” Parrikar said.

Parrikar said many things needed to be considered before Rs 8000 crore is sanctioned for implementing OROP.

“A lot of things have to be considered before sanctioning Rs 8,000 crore…it is not a matter of Rs 8. There were a lot of issues involved with it, why blame someone? It is very easy to say that give it (money), but when one has to give the money, it is not easy,” he said.
He was asked whether differences between bureaucracy and the political leadership had delayed the announcement.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday said those who had had to quit the defence forces prematurely would also be entitled to OROP benefits.

Here’s how officials clarified doubts on OROP

No, not everyone is convinced and satisfied with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi after 'One Rank, One Pension' (OROP), a much awaited demand of the ex employees of the Indian army has been approved. The veterans are relieved with the explanation of the tricky 'pre-mature retirement' clause in the OROP issue, but not the ones who retired early. Finally a few officers intervened and helped people get a clear picture of what the confusing clause of OROP debate is all about.

On the confusion created after defence minister Manohar Parrikar said OROP would not apply to those taking early retirement; the veterans welcomed PM Modi's clarification that those retiring early due to medical reasons and service-related issues would be included in the scheme. 

Officials have confirmed that OROP would apply to all current pensioners, including those who retired early. However, the 'confusing' clause was aimed at retaining serving personnel. The fear was that with good pensions assured, many relatively young officers would opt for early retirement.

"The OROP scheme would be used as an incentive for officers to serve their full tenure. In the past, several officers would opt for retirement after 20 years of service as they were assured of a pension. Now, they may serve longer to avail the OROP benefit," an official said.

However, the veterans have decided to continue a scaled-down relay hunger strike on minor pending issues, including the annual revision of salaries.

1 comment:

  1. Having come this far, what ESM associations could do is to do is apply their efforts to ascertaining the fine print and pre empting anomalies with a proper order of urgency.

    ReplyDelete