One Rank One Pension: Ex-servicemen to start returning their medals today

“A section insisting on returning the medals because one is not happy with certain clauses of OROP, for which the government is paying over Rs 8,000 crore, is demeaning the medal itself”, Parrikar told PTI in Vasco Da Gama. Ex-servicemen from Ambala, Chandigarh, Moga, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur already returned their medals on Tuesday, while those from Mumbai, Pune, Vadodara and Bengaluru will follow suit “next”, Col. Anil Kaul (Retd), spokesman of the protesters, said in Delhi. In protest against the government notification, we will start returning our medals from tomorrow.

The ex-servicemen have chose to return their medals in protest against OROP notification Tuesday onwards.

In Delhi, medals will be returned outside the busy terminal 1 of the Indira Gandhi global Airport (IGIA), reported the Hindustan Times. He termed the one rank, one pension (OROP) decision as his biggest achievement in the last one year and said it was the BJP government that had finalised the measure. It was the government who inserted provisions that has made the issue complicated.

The Defence minister added that the protesting ex-servicemen should put their grievances before the Pay Commission. Brigadier Harwant Singh (retd), president, Defence Brotherhood (Chandigarh), said they would also deposit medals to the UT administrator after Diwali.

“The district magistrate will collect the medals and if he doesn’t come to collect it, the medals will be left behind”.

Veteran soldiers, organised under the banner of the Indian Ex-Servicemens’ Movement (IESM), said went against the definition of “Orop”, which means soldiers retiring in the same rank should be given the same pension irrespective of their date of retirement. The commission will look into problems if any. He issued a statement on a day when many ex-servicemen, unhappy with the details of the OROP notified by the government on November 7, began to return their awards.

A veterans’ body, which has been agitating for over 185 days demanding an undiluted scheme, said the OROP in the existing form will not be acceptable. He had yesterday said that everyone has a right to make a demand in democracy but not all demands can be fulfilled. But many welcomed the move with a few apprehensions.