ESMA: ISSUANCE OF GOVERNMENT ORDER FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP) AND OTHER PRESSING ISSUES RELATED TO MILITARY VETERANS‏

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ISSUANCE OF GOVERNMENT ORDER FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP) AND OTHER PRESSING ISSUES RELATED TO MILITARY VETERANS‏

LETTER TO SH NARENDER MODI, PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

Sh Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)
New Delhi – 110 001 02 June 2014

Sub: ISSUANCE OF GOVERNMENT ORDER FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP) AND OTHER PRESSING ISSUES RELATED TO MILITARY VETERANS

Dear Sh Modi,

Please accept felicitations from the community of military veterans on your taking over as the Prime Minister of the largest democracy.

We also specifically express our gratitude for your kindness towards the defence services, military veterans and their families and showing due sensitivity to the issues confronting them from time to time, which was also adequately reflected in the manifesto of your party.

As you are well aware, the last ten years have resulted in an acute form of apathy towards the defence community without any redressal and without their voice being heard by those who were duty-bound to care for them. Based on our interactions and meetings with your party, the contents of the party manifesto and your compassion towards the men and women in uniform, we have endorsed a letter to Sh Rajnath Singh, with a copy of Sh Arun Jaitley and Sh Ravi Shankar Prashad, in which we have duly highlighted the pressing issues which need immediate attention by the new government. This includes implementation of concept of One Rank One Pension (OROP) and withdrawal of all appeals initiated in the Supreme Court by the last government against disability benefits granted by Armed Forces Tribunals and High Courts to disabled and war disabled personnel.

We would request your kind personal indulgence in getting these issues pursued in a strong willed manner at the political-executive level by the Ministers and without being influenced by notes of officials in the Ministry of Defence who till now were able to misdirect the decision-making process in absence of a strong political leadership, which now of course seems a part of the dark past. IESM is also looking forward to an efficient and stable Government and is very hopeful that security environment in the country will improve.

From our side, we assure you of all possible assistance in all your endeavours towards promoting nationalism and good governance.

WE ARE WITH YOU, JAI HIND

With regards,

Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Chairman IESM
Mob: +919312404269, 0124-4110570
Email ID: satbirsm@gmail.com
Encl:
As above.
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LETTER TO SH RAJNATH SINGH

PRESIDENT BJP

Sh Rajnath Singh
President, BJP
Home Minister Govt of India
North Block
New Delhi 02 2June 2014

Sub: ISSUANCE OF GOVERNMENT ORDER FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP) AND OTHER PRESSING ISSUES RELATED TO MILITARY VETERANS

Dear Sh Rajnath Singh ji,

Please accept our heartiest congratulations for the great achievement of BJP under your leadership. This was written on the wall, your able and decisive direction to the party has led to this grand victory. Election campaign under you and Sh Narendra Modi's leadership was very effective and efficiently communicated to every citizen of India. Development agenda has shown that people of India are now looking for positive change and have risen above the divisive policies practiced by many. On behalf of the ex-servicemen family, the IESM extends felicitations to you and your team. We are also glad that you have been given this responsibility and now we can expect very clear directions from Home Ministry.

The Military Veterans family has given full support to BJP in this great run for the elections. Our faith in Sh Modi's leadership has been strengthened and ex-servicemen are happy that the country will get a stable Government. Ex-Servicemen are also happy that now India will get a Government which will mean business and will work for improving security of the country. IESM also congratulates the wisdom of Indians who have decisively elected a Government with full majority and expects some tough decisions for the security of India.

Ex-servicemen would like to draw your attention to some of their pending and pressing issues which were also included in the BJP manifesto, the foremost being OROP. The party had promised our delegation(s) before the elections that as and when BJP Government is instituted, you as Party President will ensure approval of our demands. Time has now come for implementation of OROP and redressal of other pressing demands of our veterans. You are aware that UPA Government had announced OROP in the Parliament on 17 Feb 2014 but failed to issue Government order for implementation in last three months of its rule. Armed Forces Pay cells have worked out the tables for OROP for all ranks but the Defence Ministry, based on inputs emanating from lower level bureaucracy and the Defence Accounts Department, is hesitating in issuing the implementation letter. There is a clear definition of OROP given at Para 3 of the Rajay Sabha Petition Committee (headed by Sh Bhagat Singh Koshiari) Report on OROP which was presented to the Rajya Sabha on 19 Dec 2011 and also is given in the minutes of the meeting chaired by the last Raksha Mantri on 26 Feb 2014 which is as under :-

OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension, to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.

It further implies that Pensions of past defence retirees will be equal to that of a person with same rank and length of service and same group retiring wef 01 Apr 2014, and future enhancement in the rates of pensions will be automatically passed to the past pensioners. There is a inbuilt safety that a junior rank will not get pension more than a senior rank irrespective of their date of retirement. Protection of seniority of rank is very important in Armed Forces as hierarchy in Armed Forces is determined by Rank.

UPA Govt did not have the will to implement the announcement made in interim budget because they had announced this for political reasons and to gain confidence of Ex-servicemen during elections. Ex-servicemen never had faith in sincerity of UPA Government and hence did not support them despite the announcement of OROP. UPA had earlier also claimed giving OROP but never issued any orders. So much was the anti-military veteran attitude of the UPA that it went on to approve thousands of appeals against disabled and war disabled soldiers in the Supreme Court against disability pensionary benefits granted to them by various High Courts and Armed Forces Tribunals only on the ground that such judicial decisions were against ‘Govt Policy’. Rather than changing the policies and bringing them in line of judicial verdicts, the MoD continued to file appeals against the same based on misleading file notings of lower level functionaries in the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) of the MoD thereby bringing massive discontentment in the military community.

Ex-servicemen have full faith in the promises made by you, as President of BJP, and are looking forward for a swift and decisive action from you. You had promised to IESM in a meeting on 09 September & 7 November 2013 that OROP will be implemented at the earliest. We are now looking forward to you to honour your commitment by issuing the implementation letter as per approved definition of OROP. Some of the other important points which would need your urgent attention are given below:

1. Grant of OROP as recommended by Koshiari Committee and as announced in the Parliament. Government order for implementation of OROP as per approved definition needs to be issued on priority as already prepared by the Headquarters of the defence services.

2. Immediate unconditional withdrawal of ALL pending appeals filed by the Ministry of Defence against disabled soldiers, war disabled soldiers and military widows in the Supreme Court and review of all other appeals filed against other defence pensioners by an independent committee with due representation of stake-holders so that policies can be rationalised.

3. Formation of Military Veterans’ Commission headed by and manned by sensitised personalities with military background.

4. Job employment upto 60 yrs, that is, upto the age of retirement on the civil side, for all ex-servicemen at levels commensurate to their last held levels in the defence services.

5. Placing the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) under the Ministry of Law and Justice rather than the Ministry of Defence as is the case at present, in line with the decision of the Supreme Court in Union of India Vs R Gandhi [2010 (6) SCR 857] since the current functioning of the AFT displays acute conflict of interest since the AFT is supposed to pass all orders against the MoD and the same MoD happens to be its parent/controlling/administrative Ministry. It is also requested that AFT be given powers of civil contempt to ensure implementation of its orders since currently the AFT is toothless and cannot get its orders implemented.

6. Representation of Ex-servicemen and stake-holders in all committees made to decide welfare of military veterans since as per the current dispensation, the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare issues policies which are forcibly imposed upon military veterans without taking the views of stake-holders into consideration. On the contrary, the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare on the civil side is much more sensitive to the requirements of its pensioners. Steps may also be taken to include a member of the armed forces and a member of the military veteran community into the 7^th Central Pay Commission that has already been notified.

7. Grant of Non-Functional Upgradation (NFU) to commissioned officers at par with other equivalent Group A civil officers, which is a long pending demand of the defence services.

8. Grant of third Assured Career Progression (ACP) to Other Ranks (OR) before retirement at a very young age between 35-40 years. It may be recalled that the 3^rd ACP is currently theoretically admissible to Other Ranks after 24 years of service by which time most of the OR have already retired.

9. Improvement in Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS).

IESM is very hopeful that NDA Government would soon issue Government Orders for implementing OROP as per the definition approved by Koshiari Committee and announced in the Parliament. IESM is also hopeful that other pending points, agreed by you or included in the BJP manifesto, will also get your special attention and be implemented forthwith.

IESM is looking forward to an efficient and stable Government and is very hopeful that security environment in the country will improve.

From our side, we assure you of all possible assistance in all your endeavours towards promoting nationalism and good governance.

WE ARE WITH YOU.

With regards,

Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, SM
Chairman IESM
Mob: +919312404269, 0124-4110570
Email ID: satbirsm@gmail.com
Copy to

Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Ministry of Defence South Block, New Delhi-110011	With a request for personal intervention to get the issues mentioned above resolved at the earliest, by duly taking into account the sentiments of military veterans.
Sh Ravi Shankar Prashad, Minister of Law and Justice, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi-110001	With a request to take immediate action with regard to Points Nos 2 and 5 referred above.
General VK Singh (Retd), Member of Parliament, Minister of State for (Independent Charge) Development of North-East States MoS Ministry of External Affairs	With a request to use your good offices in getting the issues addressed.
Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Member of Parliament, (Source-BC Vasundhara blog)	With a request to use your good offices in getting the issues addressed.

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OROP Status Report

General

1. Politicians speaking in the Parliament add a lot of dressing to the substance of what they say. The Finance Minister did the same on 14.02.2014 while speaking on OROP. He first floridly announced that the gap between pre-2006 and post-2006 retirees for all ranks needs to be closed. Later, coming to the gist he had stated that the government has now decided to walk the last mile and implement the scheme of One Rank One Pension for all Armed Forces personnel and their dependents.

2. In the follow-up meeting held on 26.02.2014 the Defence Minister, who was in chair, had reiterated the following definition of OROP:

"OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners."

3. This definition accords with what the IESM has been projecting (except we had not used the term 'uniform pension' ). This was also the definition given by the Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions that submitted its report on 19.12.2011.

4. The Services prepared a draft government letter in April giving out detailed modalities of OROP. The draft still remains under discussion.

Meetings of Stake Holders

5. In a subsequent meeting held on 22.04.2014, the Defence Minister constituted a committee to work out the modalities and submit its report within three weeks. (It is learnt that the Minister wanted the report much faster but the PCDA expressed inability to do it in lesser time frame).

6. The Committee has had five sittings starting with the first meeting on 02.05.2014. Some of these were chaired by the RRM. The PCDA has been consistently displaying an obstructionist approach and has been the main stumbling block. He has been giving his own interpretation to various aspects of OROP. Some of these, including the counter by the Services are given ensuingly.

7. Definition of OROP. According to PCDA, definition of OROP should be drawn from the Finance Minister's budget 2014-15 speech vide which the gap between pre-2006 retirees and post-2006 retirees for all ranks needs to be closed. Here he is quoting the first part of the FMs speech while conveniently ignoring the second part as given in Para 1 above. The Service representatives attending the meetings have pointed this out in the meeting and have also drawn attention to the definition given by the Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions.

8. Interpretation of the Term 'Uniform Pension'. The PCDA has opined that 'Uniform' pension means pension under a uniform pay/pension structure i.e. under the same pay scales with same qualifying service & pension calculation formula. According to him it need not necessarily lead to same pension for all the retirees (past & present) in the same rank and same qualifying service because of the annual increments being given to the serving personnel. The Services have of course countered saying uniform pension means one/same/equal/identical pension.

9. Length of Service. The PCDA has further held that the 'length of service' in the OROP definition is to be treated as the number of years of service put in by the pensioner in the rank last held. Alternatively, according to the PCDA, if total qualifying service is to be treated for the purpose of OROP then qualitative aspects relating to length of service in terms of number of years rendered in each rank the service person has served before the retirement in the last rank held, needs to be taken cognizance of. This they concede will be difficult to implement in practice. The counter by the Services is that length of service and qualifying service are synonymous as given in Rule 19 of Pension Regulations 2008 as also in the MoD letter dated 17.01.2013.

10. Bridging the Gap. The PCDA has further held that while bridging the gap between the pre-2006 and post-2006 pensioners the benefits of improved service conditions (viz. method of faster promotion applicable to the current personnel) should not be extended to past pensioners. This in fact runs against the concept of automatically passing on future enhancement to past pensioners, which is intrinsic to the definition of OROP. The Services have pointed this out, also underscoring the fact that the benefit of MSP and Grade Pay for calculation of pension has already been extended to past pensioners. The Services have further suggested that there should be a periodic review of OROP say on yearly basis, wherein any anomaly can be addressed.

Conclusion

11. Fir reasons best known to them the outgoing government announced OROP too late and could not get it implemented during their tenure. With their term nearing the end, the bureaucratic hierarchy reportedly stopped being responsive to political orders. The dunderheaded obduracy of some financial bureaucrats can delay it for some time but cannot stop OROP. It is reiterated that OROP has come about after a long effort of over three decades. While some delay in its implementation is understandable, any hint of dilution will be resisted and will result in renewal of the struggle by the IESM.