OROP issue: Veterans threaten to boycott Govt functions including Independence Day

New Delhi, June 22: The ex-servicemen who were protesting over the delay in implementaion of the One Rank One Pension have now decided to boycott the golden jubilee celebrations of the 1965 war with Pakistan.

"We don't wish to be treated as showpieces, to be rolled out for ceremonies and discarded thereafter," an incensed 1965 war veteran Brigadier Harwant Singh was quoted as saying in India Today.

As per the report, "Ex-servicemen have also threatened to boycott all government functions including Independence Day at-home on August 15 and a felicitation of 1965 War Veterans by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in September, unless OROP is granted. There will be no Ex-Servicemen contingent at the Republic Day parade on January 26, 2016, they have warned."

Continuing their agitation against delay in implementation of the OROP scheme, ex-servicemen had said they would launch similar stir in all poll-bound states.

"The government is not fulfilling its promise and not even giving us a dateline for implementing the scheme," Indian ex-Servicemen Movement chairman Maj. Gen. Satbir Singh (retd) said.

"We will go to Patna, and all other poll-bound states and scale up the agitation," he said.

Singh said reports that the government was planning to implement OROP ahead of Bihar elections made one wonder if it was aimed at getting votes.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)