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| Advani picks up gauntlet for ex-servicemen |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Mar 20, 2009, 01:04 IST |
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The demand for one-rank, one-pension (OROP) raised by ex-servicemen has taken on a political hue with the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA’s) prime ministerial candidate, L K Advani, promising that the BJP would fulfill this demand if voted to power.
Addressing retired soldiers in the capital on Thursday, Advani said the current policy of different pensions for two individuals retiring after equal length of service and from the same rank is “illogical.”
Under the existing system, a havaldar who retired before January 2006 receives Rs 5,239 as pension, but another soldier of the same rank and who retired after 2006 receives Rs 8,030. The BJP would make the OROP demand a part of its election agenda and would “insist” that its NDA allies would approve of this demand, said Advani.
India’s national security and the honour of the tri-services, which provides that security is paramount for the BJP, as reflected in its “costly” decision to conduct nuclear tests soon after coming to power in 1998, said Advani.
Similarly, despite the so-called burden on the exchequer due to the implementation of the OROP, the BJP would go ahead since the “problem is not about inadequacy (of money) but of inequity,” he added.
So far, political parties have taken note of the OROP demand, but it has remained only in their election manifestos. The Congress too had listed it in its 2004 manifesto, but the United Progressive Alliance government did not fulfill the demand.
In a report tabled in Parliament by the Standing Committee on Defence, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it’s “unfeasible to accept the (OROP) demand” due to “additional financial liability and repercussions elsewhere.”
As per MoD estimates, instead of Rs 460 crore an annum allotted for providing pension for ex-servicemen, Rs 1,200-1,300 crore would be spent if the OROP demand is met.
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