12 May 2009, 0354 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI: The UPA government has tied itself in knots over the long-standing demand for one rank-one pension (OROP) for the armed forces, which ex-servicemen hold has been used by all political parties to garner votes but has never been implemented.
First, on May 4, the defence ministry declared before the crucial fourth phase of polling on May 7 that a high-level committee headed by the cabinet secretary had been constituted to "reduce the gap in the pensionary benefits to officers and jawans, bringing it as close to OROP as possible".
But faced with a query from the Election Commission, cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar has now denied that the government has constituted any special committee for the purpose.
The government obviously has backtracked in face of the danger of being pulled up for violating the model code of conduct by announcing the decision bang in the middle of elections. Similar is the case with the other sop announced about the hike in disability pension for soldiers.
As earlier reported by TOI, the timing of the defence ministry's announcements was quite suspect since areas with major ex-servicemen populations like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi and western UP were slated to go to polls during the fourth and fifth phases on May 7 and May 13.
With BJP's singing the 'Jai Jawan' tune in its manifesto, the UPA is clearly on the backfoot as far as the simmering anger among ex-servicemen over the non-implementation of OROP is concerned.
Capitalising on the discontent in armed forces over pay and pension issues, the BJP has pledged tax-free salaries and perks to them, full OROP implementation, a separate pay commission, a 10-fold hike in monthly honorariums for gallantry award winners, incentives to state governments to ensure "honourable settlement'' of retired personnel and the like in its manifesto.
The intention obviously is to woo the defence community of 14 lakh serving and 23 lakh retired military personnel, which expands into a sizable votebank of around 1.5 crore people if family members are taken into account.
Forces' pension: Govt U-turn after EC heat
No panel on ex-servicemen’s pay anomalies
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Forces' pension: Govt U-turn after EC heat
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This is not an official Blog site. This forum is run by team of ex- Corps of Signals, Indian Army, Veterans for social networking of Indian Defence Veterans. It is not affiliated to or officially recognized by the MoD or the AHQ, Director General of Signals or Government/ State.
The Report My Signal Forum will endeavor to edit/ delete any material which is considered offensive, undesirable and or impinging on national security. The Blog Team is very conscious of potentially questionable content. However, where a content is posted and between posting and removal from the blog in such cases, the act does not reflect either the condoning or endorsing of said material by the Team.
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