One Rank, One Pension

A group of retired military chiefs have written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee, urging him to urgently intervene in the One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue, stating that "...denial of OROP is merely the last straw that has exhausted the Veterans' patience." The letter was signed by former Army Chief General SF Rodrigues, and former Navy Chiefs, Admirals L Ramdas, Arun Prakash and Sureesh Mehta.

The OROP has been a longstanding demand of ex-servicemen. It will grant retired armed forces personnel pension parity with officers and jawans of the same rank who are retiring now. At present, the pension for retired personnel is based on the Pay Commission recommendations at the time they retire. A Major General who retired in 1996 would draw less pension than his junior who retired years later.

Earlier, ex-servicemen turned down a government proposal to benchmark pensions at 2011 rates. They insisted that 2014 rates should be counted as that is when the NDA government had promised the scheme. If implemented at 2014 rates, the pension of retired personnel would be drastically enhanced. For example, a retiring Havildar's pension would go up from Rs 4,500 to Rs 9,600 a month. Similarly, a retiring Major would earn Rs 35,000, up from Rs 14,400, according to NDTV.

Widows would also benefit; the widow of a Subedar Major would see her pension go up from Rs 4,830 to Rs 9,612. The widow of a major would get nearly Rs 20,000 as opposed to Rs 8,460 that they receive now, thus calculated the news channel. In fact, the OROP, or same pension for same rank, not for same length of service, irrespective of the date of retirement, was the basis for determining the pension and benefits of Indian Armed Forces till 1973.

In 1973, the Indian National Congress(INC) government headed by Indira Gandhi, Prime minister, following the Third Central Pay Commission (3 CPC), in an "ex-parte" decision terminated the OROP. The termination of OROP caused disquiet in the Armed Forces and has since become a cause of public protests by Armed Forces veterans.

The estimates of expenditure on account of OROP has undergone many revisions: according to early Ministry of Defence estimates, the OROP was expected to cost Rs 3,000 crore. This figure has since been questioned and revised. The current estimates vary between Rs 8,000 crore and 9,000 crore.