IESM Letter to FM Sh. Arun Jaitley on 19 July 14

Sub: IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP)

Dear Sh Arun Jaitley,                                                          19thJuly2014

We are grateful for granting us the meeting with you on 16 July 2014  with regard to issue of Implementation letter for OROP. 

 Regarding your contention that the gap between the calculations made by the various stake holders(Service HQs and the officials of MoD namely CGDA, PCDA, Secy DESW) is very large, due to which there was delay in issuing the Govt Letter; Since, there is only ONE Definition of OROP as approved by the Parliament and therefore, there has to be only ONE calculation, irrespective of small or large gap.These gaps have been designed to find a way to deny full benefit of OROP to ex-servicemen. A point to be noted here is that had OROP been granted 25 years back there would not have been any gap now. 

Sir, in case X and  Groups are to be granted OROP as per their respective Groups, the funds required will be 4500 – 5000 Crores, as per calculations correctly carried out by the Service HQs.  And in case all Defence Employees are to be granted ‘X’ Group rates of pensions, then the amount required would be 6500-7000 Crores as per the calculation made by PCDA.The funds required for the two options are not too large for the Nation to pay justified pensions to the Retired Soldiers, who have given their life and comforts of life for national security.

The CGDA/PCDA/DESW should not be allowed to dilute the definition of OROP or coin their own definition or understanding of OROP. Their calculations, based on datum line 01.01.2006 pensions rates, are totally against the  approved definition which requires the OROP to be calculated based on the rates of pensions as on 01.04.2014, the date from which OROP has been sanctioned and future enhancements are to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This was duly discussed in the meting chaired by you on 12^thJune 2014. 

Sir, ex-servicemen are fighting for a principle, any dilution of definition of OROP will not be acceptable to the Ex-Servicemen. It has to be full OROP as per the definition already approved by the Parliament.

In view of the foregoing, please expedite issue of Govt Letter for the implementation of OROP as per the DGL prepared by the Service HQs.

With regards,

Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Chairman IESM
Mob: +919312404269,                      

Email ID: satbirsm@gmail.com