OROP announced: Veterans may continue stir

New Delhi, Sept 5: The government which announced the One Rank One Pension today has said that the base year for the implementation will be the year 2013 while adding that the equalization would be every five years.

July 1 2014 will be the date effective, Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar said at New Delhi while announcing OROP.

However the veterans while thanking the government for the implementation said that only one of their six demands have been accepted and hence they are likely to continue with their protests which is already into the 87th day.

The government also announced today that a one man judicial commission will be set up to study the anomalies. The commission shall report to the government in six months, Parrikar also said.

The veterans have however said that they will carry on with the agitation as the government has accepted only one of their demands while rejecting six. While the implementation year was acceptable to the veterans, they rejected the government's decision on the equalization clause every five years. They were also not acceptable to the decision of setting up a one man commission.

Major General (Retd) Satbir Singh who is leading the protests while thanking the government however added that they may have to carry forward the agitation. A final call on this would be taken, he also said.

Earlier at the presser, Parrikar said that the government has kept up its word. There is a huge fiscal burden, but the government is committed to the welfare of the ex-servicemen, the defence minister also said. He also said that the estimated cost of implementation would be between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 crore. This will increase in future he also said.

OneIndia News