The Governemnt announcement on OROP

The Government of India has finally listened to the demands of the veterans of One rank One pension. Under this demand the government should assign money in order to provide uniform pension to the veterans with respect to the pension of the defense service-men retiring currently.

This implies that the government had to devise a mechanism in which the gap in the pension of the current and the past pensioners must be filled at periodic intervals. Also, if there is any future enhancement in the pension of defense personals, it should be passed on to the past pensioners as well. As it was a complex issue the government took time to decide the framework of OROP in Defense and announced it on 5th Sept 2015 ending the four decade long wait of the veterans.

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What are the announcements in OROP?

In simple language, OROP will imply that uniform pension will be paid to the Armed Force personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement.

Firstly, the benefit will be effective from 1st, July 2014 as the present Government assumed it's office from 26th May, 2014. The pension will be fixed on the basis calendar of 2013 i.e. the government will be calculating the pension on the basis of the salaries of the armed personnel who have retired in the year 2013. Not only this but they will be taking the average of the minimum and maximum pensions of the army personnel retired in the year 2013, as the base amount for calculating the pensions of the veterans.

Also, the gap between the pensions which hasn't been paid must be covered for the veterans. For this government has decided to fill this gap by providing the due amount to be paid in four half-yearly installments. The widows, including war widows will be paid arrears in one installment.

Moreover, the pension would be revised after every 5 years so as to match up with the increasing inflation.

Also, as of now the personnel who have taken voluntary retirement won't be part of the current OROP scheme. And in order to examine the interests of the retirees of different periods and different ranks One member Judicial committee is formed which will give it's report in 6 months. This committee will also clear the stand on inter-service related issues of the three forces.

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Issues that still remain:

After the announcement there were still some issues which needed to be covered by the government. Firstly, the veterans wanted revision of pension every year and the government wanted it to be done every 10 years. Then after some negotiations government came down to revision of pension every 5 years but the veterans were still adamant for the pension to be revised every 2 years.

Also, the veterans demanded that the calculation of the pension must be done from the maximum pension of the retired defense personals in the year 2014. But finally government decided to calculate the average of the minimum and maximum pensions of the defense personals who have retired in the year 2013. This will again reduce the amount which a veteran would get as his pension.

Moreover, the defense veterans demanded to have a 5 member committee including 3 military personals for further analyzing the technicalities in the OROP scheme.

Last but not the least, Government has announced that there will be no OROP for defense personals who have taken voluntary retirement (VRS) from the services but in Defense there is no voluntary retirement and any defense personal needs to take special permission for Pre-mature retirement. This is also allowed under the special case when a defense personal is not fit enough to serve the forces anymore. Hence, there was no clarification on this from the government. But next day Prime Minister announced that there will be provision for OROP for the defence personal taking pre-mature retirement which has yet to be announced.

The challenge for the government:

The government aims to keep this year’s fiscal deficit to 3.9%. It is estimated that OROP will burden the government with spending of Rupees 8-10 thousand crore every year. Hence, it will add to the fiscal deficit of the nation. The government is already facing challenges in keeping the GDP growth rate at 7% and with the Chinese depreciating the value of Yuan it has added extra pressure over the government to stabilize the share market and the economy. Hence, it will be a daunting task for the government to execute OROP.

Moreover, after OROP in defense other forces such as the Para-military and the Police force might also request for the same in the near future and that will lead to more pressure over the government and its fiscal policies.

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Conclusion:

The announcement of OROP is a great step towards the growth of the nation as not only will it provide an assistance to the defense personals who have laid down their lives for the nation but also build a better relationship between the defense forces and the government. This will also boost the confidence of the citizens of the country that the government is willing to take the extra risk with the fiscal policies in order to take care of the defense forces and their tax is going for the service of the nation.
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About the Author:  Pranav Nikam is an Electrical and Electronics engineer who is working in a renowned MNC in Chennai. He likes to work out in gym, do photography and play badminton. Through his articles he wants to spread awareness among other defence aspirants.