Lokesh Batra seeks clarification on ex-service chiefs letter to Prez on OROP

Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh Batra has filed an RTI reply seeking details of the date when President Pranab Mukherjee and the President's Secretariat had perused the letter written by ex-service chiefs on the 'One Rank, One Pension' scheme and a brief on the follow up action(s) giving date-line.

Commodore (Retd.) Batra has also asked that he be provided with list of file(s)/records with reference numbers on which the said Letter/Petition/Memorandum of former chiefs of armed forces was being processed.

Extremely disappointed with the delay in implementation of the OROP scheme, four former service chiefs had earlier written an open letter to President Mukherjee requesting his intervention and said that its denial is merely the last straw that has exhausted the veterans' patience.

"Firstly, denial of OROP is merely the last straw that has exhausted the veterans' patience. It appears to be the culmination of a process by which successive Pay Commissions have been used to whittle down the financial and protocol status of the military over the years vis-a-vis their civilian counterparts. Since no rationale has ever been offered for this steady decline in status of the military, the obvious conclusion is that it has been orchestrated to prove that the key to 'civilian control' of the military lies in bringing it on par with the police and paramilitary forces, and making it subservient to the bureaucracy," said the open letter signed by former army chief General S F Rodrigues, and former navy chiefs Admirals L Ramdas, Arun Prakash and Sureesh Mehta.

"The hostile approach of MoD bureaucracy was earlier demonstrated, in 2007-08, when the 6th Pay Commission anomalies were required to be resolved. Their insensitive and antagonistic handling of problems related to pensions and allowances of aging veterans, war widows and battle-casualties led many to approach the courts. This not only created a deep civil-military divide but eventually forced a disciplined and politically-neutral segment of society into the jaws of party-politics," the letter adds.