OROP

OROP

All About One Rank One Pension

What is it?

‘OROP’ implies equal amount of pension for having served in the same rank and also having rendered the same length of service. Any hike in pension rates to be automatically passed on to past pensioners.

How is it now working?

Current pension scheme is based on dates. If a person gets retired before a particular date will get different pension compared to one who retires latter to that date. Person in former will get less pension than the latter. Even though both persons worked for same number of years and in same rank, this difference exists.

Why difference exists?

Discontent among ex-servicemen is largely because of the reason that with every successive pay commission the gap between past pensioners and their younger equivalents grows further. While every pay commission bumps the salaries of government servants, pensions of ex-servicemen remain the same. Statistically, for equal service, a Sepoy, who retired prior to 1996, gets 82% lower pension than a Sepoy who retires after 2006. Similarly, among officers, a pre-1996 Major gets 53%
lower pension than his post 2006 counterpart. Also, to note down is a fact that defense personnel do not get to serve many years that are required to procure optimum pension amount Judiciary’s opinion:
”Pension is not a bounty nor a matter of grace depending upon the sweet will of the employer. It is not an ex-gratia payment, but a payment for past services rendered”, the Supreme Court in its 1983 ruling had stated. In 2010 ruling, the court had said that the State can’t adopt different criteria for the scheme on the basis of cut-off date of retirement. And if that is being done then that will be considered as the violation of Article 14 which gives a person constitutional right to be treated equal before law.

Problems to Implementing:
± Financial: In earlier budget 1000cr had been allocated for implementing the scheme. It was found to be insufficient and government will require 8times than earlier allocated amount. This will be huge bloat to pension bills.
± Administrative: Huge task to pass all the benefits, with no cut-off date, to all living ex servicemen.
± Other services: Paramilitary forces has similar problem. Earlier government postponed OROP not to demoralize the paramilitary forces. Also there is fear of raising demand from civil members of working forces and other Government officials.