Ex-servicemen slam govt over flaws in One Rank One Pension scheme

Retired Honorary Commissioned Officers (HCOs) from the Army, Navy and Air Force, under the banner of the National Federation of Defence Honorary Commissioned Officers (NFDHCO), held their Annual General Body Meeting in Ambala Cantonment on Friday, accusing the government of failing to implement the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme in its true spirit.

Members from the NCR, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan attended the meeting.

Chairman of the NFDHCO, Captain Jagdish Verma (Retd), who chaired the proceedings, said the present government had taken the initiative to introduce OROP, which had been a long-pending demand, “but didn’t implement it as per the Bhagat Singh Koshyari Parliamentary Committee and anomalies being cropped up aren’t addressed adequately”. He added that HCOs were among the worst affected, as the implementation had resulted in “many anomalies discriminatingly”.

“We have been protesting for the last over two years but government is not creating any platform to have a dialogue to resolve all these issues. Government is compelling ex-servicemen (ESM) to approach the courts for remedies of these anomalies and spend their hard-earned money in the litigations,” he said.

He pointed out that the one-man judicial commission, headed by retired Chief Justice of Patna High Court Justice Laxmin Narsimha Reddy, had been constituted to examine anomalies in the implementation of OROP. “This commission visited over 22 places throughout the country and took views of ESM and submitted its report to government in 2016 but the report hasn’t seen light of the day till date and ESM are suffering financial loss. The report of the commission must be made public and all anomalies should be rectified on the basis of its recommendation,” he demanded.

The Chairman added, “It has also been decided that the organisation will take up anomalies case with chairperson of the 8th Central Pay Commission. It is very unfortunate that HCOs when admitted to the empanelled ECHS Hospital they aren’t given private room as per their entitlement according to the ECHS scheme when it was launched. Their ration isn’t drawn as per their entitlement in case they are admitted to Military Hospital under special circumstances. We demand that such discrimination must be stopped forthwith.”