No more discriminatory pensions today onwards. PM Modi to announce ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme

In a bid to mark one year in power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a massive rally in Mathura city today, in which over one lakh people are expected to join him for celebrations to be commemorated as 'Jan Kalyan Parv'.

During the rally, Modi is likely to unveil ‘One Rank, One Pension' (OROP) plan with a corpus of about Rs 8,300 crore for over 25 lakh ex-servicemen, who have been demanding it for long.

The announcement will come as a big relief for ex-servicemen, who have been demanding it for years now. Many even refused to take their medals to voice their outcry.

Times of India reported first that the Modi government had defined "military pension" separate from other kinds of pensions, to justify implementation of OROP, since soldiers, sailors and airmen as well as their officers retire much younger than other government employees.

The scheme implies payment of a uniform pension to personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their retirement date.

Previous governments contended that granting full OROP was neither financially nor administratively possible since it could lead to a cascading effect with similar demands from others like paramilitary personnel also.

However, TOI reported the government is convinced that the service conditions of other government employees simply cannot be equated with those of the military, who retire at a much earlier age and undergo prolonged hardship tenures. The majority of soldiers, for instance, retire at 34-35 years of age.

(Image: Indiatimes)