Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, February 18

A section of ex-servicemen have decided to hold a protest rally in Patiala on February 21. They say the non-implementation of the one-rank, one-pension (OROP) concept in full measure as approved in Parliament had caused discontentment in the defence community and lack of faith in the government. They said the future course of action would be announced in the rally.Speaking to mediapersons here today, Brig KS Kahlon (retd), president, All India Defence Brotherhood, said there were some anomalies in the orders issued by the government that had long-drawn ramifications and would create a wedge between the past and future retirees.Pointing out that are were “incongruities” in the OROP tables and the circular issued for implementation of OROP by the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (PCDA), he said as per the orders issued by the Defence Ministry in November 2015, pensions of past retirees are to be fixed on the basis of 2013 retirees of the same rank and having the same length of service. However, in the circular issued by the PCDA this month, it has reintroduced the distinction between “rank last held” and “rank for pension”.Brig Kahlon said the Seventh Pay Commission had added fuel to the fire by “downgrading” the status of defence services vis-a-vis the civil services.He added that it was unfortunate that political leaders and bureaucrats had failed to comprehend the difficult service conditions even after 10 soldiers were recently killed in Siachen.

The issue

• They say the non-implementation of the one-rank, one-pension (OROP) concept in full measure as approved in Parliament had caused discontentment in the defence community and lack of faith in the government