OROP: Congress accuses Centre of humiliating ex-servicemen

The Congress on Sunday branded the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA Government's decision on One Rank One Pension (OROP) as a 'humiliation' to the ex-servicemen and added that the provision for OROP was made by the UPA Government.

"I hope that the government will not further humiliate the ex-servicemen. For the last two days we have been witnessing a big humiliation from the government to the agitating ex-servicemen...There is nothing new, government cannot claim anything, OROP was implemented by the UPA government," Congress leader P C Chacko told ANI.

"When AK Antony was Defence Minister, OROP was decided to be implemented, we had made a budget provision also. Only thing this government could have done was to complete within few months time. In one and a half months they have not done a scientific assessment to implement it," he added.

Chacko said that 46 percent of the ex-servicemen, who retire prematurely, will not get the benefit of OROP.

"This is nothing short of cheating the ex-servicemen and still the government claims to have done a big thing," he said.

Ex-servicemen protesting for the implementation of the OROP scheme called off their hunger strike earlier today, after receiving Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reassurance on OROP but said they will continue with their agitation.

"We are happy to announce that we have called off the hunger strike. The Government should agree to VRS and the other four points. It's legal and justified. Agitation will continue," said chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) Major General (Retired) Satbir Singh.