OROP: On I-Day eve, ex-servicemen evicted from Jantar Mantar

“People from armed forces spend their lives on the border and they are protesting now”.

Ahead of the Independence Day celebration, the Delhi Police on Friday evicted various protesting groups from Jantar Mantar, including those sitting on protest demanding the implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP).

The Amethi MP denounced police motion to evict protesters from Jantar Mantar earlier as we speak. The police said protesting ex-servicemen have to vacate the area in the evening due to security reasons.

“We were told yesterday (Thursday) to remove all permanent structures from Jantar Mantar“.

The ex-servicemen later announced that Union Minister V K Singh has conveyed to them that Home Minister Rajnath Singh was informed about the incident and he has instructed the Delhi Police Commissioner to allow them to continue their agitation. “We hope that some announcement would be made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech”, an office-bearers of a body of ex-servicemen community said. “It is a black Independence day as they have tried to curb our independence”.

Comparing the present government with the previous UPA, he said, “Within a year, the NDA has started behaving the way UPA behaved in its second term”.

“It was a back channel meeting to reduce overall outflow of government of India at 2011 level instead of 2014”, said Colonel (retired) Anil Kaul, media adviser for Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement.

OROP scheme has been a long-standing demand of almost three-million ex-servicemen and war widows in the country.

A section of the former soldiers has been staging a relay hunger strike on the issue here since June 15. “I wud urge Hon’ble PM to announce acceptance of the demand of OROP of our ex servicemen from Red Fort tomo, (sic)”, Kejriwal said in another tweet. Ex-servicemen want that pension payable to each rank should be the same irrespective of when they retire.

Four former service chiefs have also penned letter to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his immediate intervention into OROP issue saying the delay in rolling out of the scheme is a danger to political and military ethos of the country.