One Rank One Pension to get Rs 8,000 crore budgetary allocation

New Delhi, Feb 18: After much delay and confusion the Indian Government has finally decided to earmark Rs 8000 crore in the Union Budget towards One Rank One Pension (OROP). The budgetary allocation of Rs 8000 crore would pave the way for the implementation of OROP which would be beneficial to 25 lakh ex-servicemen.

The OROP which has been a long standing demand has seen many road blocks. Earlier it was to be implemented by January 15th but the Defence Ministry felt it would be better to await a budgetary allocation.

OROP is a uniform payment of pension to personnel who have retired in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their retirement date.

Rs 8,000 crore budgetary allocation for OROP:

Both Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar held a series of meetings in New Delhi before finally chalking out a concrete plan.

The Finance Minister agreed to allocate Rs 8,000 crore in the Union Budget after it had the government decided to define military pension as separate category from the other types of pension.

The Defence Minister during the meeting stated that military pension has to be defined separately. It cannot be equated with the other pension as the military personnel have a completely different nature of job.

They put their lives at risk and have the most difficult of postings when compared to the other government officials. Hence the OROP as being demanded is a must, the Defence Minister also informed during the discussion on the issue.

OROP defined as separate category:

The government has now defined military pension as a separate category. The military personnel have a tough job on hand. Their jobs are extremely risky unlike the rest of the government officers.

Taking these aspects into consideration it was decided that military pension ought to come under a different category.
A source in the Defence Ministry informed that this time around the OROP will come through.

There were certain issues that had to be discussed which included a budgetary allocation. It has now been decided that OROP will come through and we hope this would act as motivational factor for the armed forces.