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.
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.
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