New Delhi: The long-pending One Rank One Pension scheme for ex-servicemen was brought into force on Saturday with government issuing a notification that will benefit more than 2.5 million veterans and war widows.

However, the protesting ex-servicemen rejected the notification, saying their main demands have not been accepted and it has become “one-rank-five-pension”.

The notification is almost similar to the announcement made by defence minister Manohar Parrikar on 5 September.

To begin with, pension would be re-fixed on the basis of pension of retirees of calendar year 2013 and the benefit will be effective from 1 July 2014. The veterans had demanded that the period for pension should be fiscal year 2013-14 and not the calendar year. Also, they wanted the scheme to be effective form 1 April instead of 1 July.

The notification said that in future, the pension would be re-fixed every five years, against the demand by ex-servicemen for pension to be revised every two years, if not one.

In his immediate reaction to the notification, Maj. Gen. (retd) Satbir Singh, chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, said “the notification will not be acceptable to the rank and file. It is not One Rank One Pension but One Rank Five Pension”.

Another key element of the notification is that the armed forces personnel who opt to get discharged on their request would henceforth not get OROP benefits. “It will be effective prospectively,” defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar tweeted. PTI