By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The government is likely to issue the notification for One Rank One Pension (OROP) on Monday, a day after completion of the Bihar assembly poll process.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday claimed the scheme would be implemented before Diwali. The announcement comes on a day when protesting ex-servicemen decided to step up their protests and return their medals from November 9.
The government had, on September 5, announced the OROP scheme but an official notification was awaited. The government has cited the Model Code of Conduct for the Bihar polls as the reason behind the delay.
Even after the government announced the scheme, a section of veterans had continued their protest citing seven lacunae in the scheme. The threat to return medals is aimed at pressuring the government to notify OROP on Monday.
The protesting veterans accused Parrikar of ‘changing the goalpost’ frequently and claimed that “seven serious shortcomings” in the government’s model of OROP.
Even on earlier occasions, the veterans have returned their medals in protest against the delay in implementing their long-pending demand for OROP.
According to activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), who had filed several of RTI applications, more than 30,000 gallantry and service medals have been returned to the President’s office since 2009.
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