Udupi: Members of the District Ex-servicemen Association Udupi have decided to go on a day-long hunger strike on Sunday, July 19 demanding that the Centre implements the ‘One Rank, One Pension’ (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen, said Chandrashekar Suvarna, vice president of the association.
He was addressing the mediapersons at a press meet held at the press club on Friday, July 17. He said that there was a huge difference in the pension given to those retired before 2006 and those who retired after that.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to implement OROP in Haryana in September 2013. But, it is yet to be implemented. In his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio talk, Modi had assured the ex-servicemen that his government would soon resolve the OROP issue, but that has not happened. Even though the government has said that it is committed to implementing OROP, there has been no official word on why the implementation of the scheme has been delayed. The government cannot renege on its commitment.” The ex-servicemen said that the protest was their way of expressing disappointment with the inordinate delay in implementation of the scheme.
The scheme seeks to ensure that defence personnel who retire at the same rank and with the same length of service, will get equal pension, irrespective of when they retired. Currently, the pension for retired personnel is based on the Pay Commission recommendations at the time when he or she retires.
To extend support to the ex-servicemen who were protesting in Janthar Manthar, New Delhi for the last 34 days, the district unit decided to go on a day-long hunger strike on Sunday, July 19 at the War Memorial Ajjarkad here from morning 10 am to evening 5 pm, he said.
Ex-servicemen association president Gilbert Braganza, Commodore Jerome Castelino, Ganapaiah Sherigar and Ganesh Rao were present.