Govt's OROP package "betrayal" of ex-servicemen

Congress today attacked government's decision on 'One-Rank-One-Pension' issue dubbing it as a "betrayal" to the cause of ex-servicemen saying five out of their six demands have been rejected.
"Why has Modi government rejected five out of six demands of our 30 lakh ex-servicemen? Instead of back-patting and chest thumping, why does government not ponder over the rejection of government's announcement by ex-servicemen", former Defence Minister A K Antony and ex-Union Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters.
Insisting that ex-servicmen have been "insulted" by the government with the decision, they lamented over denial of benefit of OROP to 46% ex-servicemen by "deviously" categorizing them as premature retirees. "It is a betrayal to their cause," Sibal said.

"Does the BJP government not know that only about 1000 out of nearly 13 lakh army personnel reach the actual age of 60 years of retirement? Why is Modi government immune to the fact that almost all junior ranks retire by the age of 40 years?
"Is it not a fact that 85% of armed forces personnel retire by the age of 38 years and 10% retire by the age of 46 years?" they said.
Hitting out at BJP chief Amit Shah who called UPA's provision of Rs 500 crore for OROP as a "joke", they asked "does he not know that BJP's Finance and Defence Minister on 10th July, 2014 allocated only Rs.1,000 crore as OROP amount for the entire financial year 2014-15?

"Does it mean that BJP's budget speech was a mere joke and an attempt to ridicule ex-servicemen?"

Antony said BJP government only spent 87.2 per cent of defence allocation in financial year 2014-15. Against an allocation of Rs.2,29,000 crore, Modi government could spend only Rs.1,93,923 crore, thereby surrendering nearly Rs.25,077 crore.
"Was this money surrendered only on account of dishonesty on the part of BJP in implementation of OROP?" he asked the Prime Minister dubbing the government decision as "great disappointment".
The two Congress leaders also took exception to the implementation of OROP from July 1, 2014. "Why not implement OROP w.E.F. Ist April, 2014 as decided by Congress-led UPA government?", they added.