OROP announcement totally disappointing: Congress

The Congress on Saturday termed as "totally disappointing" the 'One Rank One Pension' (OROP) scheme announced by the government.

"The (Narendra) Modi government has substantially diluted the provisions of the OROP announced by the UPA (Congress-led United Progressive Alliance). Today's (Saturday) announcement about OROP by the defence minister is totally disappointing," Congress leader and former defence minister A.K. Antony told the media here.

"Today's claims by the defence minister that the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government is for the first time accepting the long standing demand... I don't know what language to use. We had already accepted in toto the demand for OROP and were in the process of implementing it," Antony said.

"They (the government) have ridiculed the ex-servicemen as well as the whole country," the Congress leader said.

"The UPA also included family pension and disability pension in the OROP. It took a decision that OROP would be implemented from April 1, 2014 itself. It had also substantially increased the pension of ex-servicemen three times," he said.

"Step by step, we had reduced the gap that has now ultimately been announced," he added.

Antony also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of politicising the issue, saying Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar used the occasion of announcing OROP to criticise the previous UPA government.