OROP scheme will be rolled out soon: Sambit Patra

Criticising Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for politicising the 'One Rank One Pension' (OROP) issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said OROP never materialised during the Congress regime because the party never cared for the defence of the country.

The party also said that the NDA Government shall stand by the ex-servicemen by rolling out the OROP Scheme very soon.

"As far as 'One Rank, One Pension' is concerned, Rahul Gandhi's posturing should be strongly rebutted because issues as sensitive as these should not be politicised and if the Congress and Rahul Gandhi's intention is so right, then why did OROP not become a truth in all these years? It did not materialise during the Congress regime because the Congress never cared for the defence of the country. The Congress never cared for the ex-servicemen of this country," said BJP spokesperson, Sambit Patra.

"As far as the stand of the NDA is concerned, we are absolutely clear that we want to stand by the ex-servicemen, and that's the reason as to why not only the Prime Minister before and after the election, but also the Finance Minister and the Defence Minister have rightly articulated that the OROP scheme is almost in the stage of finalisation and will be rolled out very soon," he added.

Rahul Gandhi had earlier in the day met ex-servicemen at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.

After the meeting, he said that his party would mount pressure on the NDA Government to implement the scheme at the earliest.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his general election campaigns, had promised to implement OROP as soon as the BJP came to power.

'One Rank One Pension' has been a long standing demand of ex-servicemen's associations and relates to payment of uniform pension to defence forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement.