COL BM THAPA commissioned in 1963 desired to join Sanjha Morcha .He is from Dehradun and a very popular veteran .He is respected ,loved by all Uttarakhand veterans ,He spearheaded and lead Uttarakhand veterans during OROP agitation at Jantar Mantar in 2015. A dedicated social worker for veterans .

ARTICLE BY COL.THAPA ON ONE RANK ONE PENSION

Dear Veteran brothers , please read the  very useful article and it is the fact.

                                                      LT.COL.BM.THAPA.(Retd)
  Resentment Among Veterans For Not Resolving OROP

While addressing Ex-Servicemen; after being declared BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Shri Narendra Modi, during his first rally at Rewari spoke of OROP. In 46th minute of his speech, he said, as reproduced from transcript. “Today I publically demand from the Government of India on behalf of the army men and ex-service men of this country, to publish a white paper on the status of ‘one rank, one pension’ scheme. And Friends, I am sure that if in 2004, Vajpayee Ji would have formed government, and then today this problem of one rank one pension would not have been complicated..!”

Shortly after taking over as the prime minister, Shri  Narendra Modi had assured “My government is committed to One-rank One-pension (OROP),” while addressing all ranks on board INS Vikramaditya, On new government’s policy of OROP, finance cum defence minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, referring to budgetary allocation for defence , said “we reaffirm our commitment to our brave soldiers. A policy of ‘one rank one pension’ has been adopted by the government to address the pension disparities. We propose to set aside a further sum of Rs 1,000 crore to meet the year’s requirement”.

 During pre-election rallies, to both Haryana and Maharashtra Assemblies, the Hon’ble PM declared that previous government did not give OROP in 60 years and his government has already given the same. 

Notwithstanding promises of implementation, very unfortunately, in the nearly six months of BJP’s Maximum Governance & Minimum Government and its promise to deliver on commitments; nothing has changed on OROP. Net-net; whether it was 60 years of Congress and UPA Governments or now 180 days of BJP led NDA Government, OROP still remains an unfulfilled promise. Foregoing has given rise to a dichotomous situation – we have the Hon’ble Prime Minister saying that OROP has been given and Hon’ble Defence Minister wanting to refer OROP to a Tribunal.

 Are we, ex-Faujis, in last days of life; to wait for ‘Tariq par Tariq’ and unfulfilled promise after promise? And die without seeing a Government that fulfils its promises?

Veterans request  the Hon’ble Prime Minister to resolve the present impasse and direct that orders for OROP be issued without any further delay.

LT COL B M THAPA , Retd

,Veteran Col B M Thapa ( Bengal Sappers) : receives

Certificate of Appreciation as Covid Warrior of Dehradun Area