Hazare extends support to ex-servicemen over OROP protests

Hazare said that One Rank One Pension is a long standing demand of ex-servicemen and the government promised to implement it as soon as it comes to power but it turned to be false.

The 78-year-old Gandhian activist has already announced launching an indefinite fast on October 2 in Delhi over the Land Bill and to press for OROP.

Hazare reiterated that he’ll launch a protest at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s delivery anniversary, in help of the One Rank One Pension scheme.

Veteran social activist Anna Hazare on Sunday criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA Government over the delay in implementation of the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme and urged the people to raise their voice on the issue. “Making hollow announcements for their welfare and actually implementing them are different things”.

“Our MPs want their salaries to increase from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, what for? asks Anna Hazare“.

The 78-year-old, himself a former Army man who was joined by several former armed forces personnel in the national capital, accused the government for depriving the servicemen of their dues. “War widows earn just 3500 a month, look at the injustice”.

“We nonetheless have two months left, and I will journey throughout the nation to hunt individuals’s help”, he added.

The ex-servicemen have raised the demand for the implementation of OROP policy during a marathon run held to mark the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas.

In a tweet, he also paid tributes to soldiers who died in the 1999 Kargil conflict.

“We are fighting for our rights”. The run was organized from Dhaula Kuan area to India Gate in which many civilians also took part. Now, we are going to come on the roads and if army comes on the road, problem is going to come with the country, country will disintegrate.

OROP scheme seeks to ensure that defence personnel who retire at the same rank and with the same length of service, will get equal pension, irrespective of when they retired.