New Delhi: Ex-Servicemen have stepped up protests for One Rank One Pension by threatening to boycott all government functions that are held to commemorate martyrs including the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war and Kargil Vijay Diwas.
This comes even as the relay hunger strike by ex-Servicemen enters its 28th day. They have given the government a deadline till July 15 to announce the implementation of the scheme.
"We are boycotting all government functions, they are meant to honour those who laid their lives in the war, but those very people are on a hunger strike, this is a dishonour, we won't let them use us this like this," said a retired officer.
Around 22 lakh ex-servicemen and over six lakh war widows stand to be the immediate beneficiaries of the OROP scheme, which envisages a uniform pension for defence personnel who retire in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement.
Currently, the pension for ex-servicemen is based on the recommendations of the Pay Commission of that time when they had retired. So, a Major General who retired in 1996 draws a lower pension than a Lieutenant Colonel who retired after 1996. However, the real crisis lies in the ranks below the officers as their pension is very low.
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