Our Correspondent,Palampur, February 14

Vijay Singh Mankotia, president, state Ex-Servicemen League, and vice-president of the state Tourism Development Board, threatened to launch a statewide agitation if the Union Government failed to remove the anomalies in the One-Rank, One-Pension (OROP) scheme announced by it last year.Addressing an ex-servicemen’s rally here today, Mankotia said, “We have all resolved to continue our protest till the government removes the anomalies in the OROP scheme announced by it.He said veterans, heading the central body of ex-servicemen, had been seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain the OROP issue. The way the pension scheme was announced by the Union Government had disappointed thousands of ex-servicemen who had failed to get any benefit under the scheme.Mankotia said the Union Government should not forget that soldiers serving on the border had been sacrificing their lives daily for the security, unity and integrity of the country. So, while granting them benefits under the scheme, no politics should be played and the Prime Minister should immediately remove all anomalies.Earlier, a number of agitating veterans objected to the government taking the calendar year 2013 instead of financial year 2013-14 for fixing the base.“The Defence Minister had earlier assured us that pensions would be given according to top of the pay scales, but now the government seemed to adopting some other concept,” they said.The ex-servicemen were also opposed to the formation of a one-man judicial commission and demanded that it should be consisted of three ex-servicemen, one serving officer and a bureaucrat.The protesting veterans have also demanded that the OROP should be independent of the Central Pay Commission and the concept should be in perpetuity.Rejecting the government’s proposal of pension revision every five years, they said our original demand was for revision of pension every year.They said the government had created confusion by including VRS in its announcement as it never existed in the defence forces.