OROP Status Report
by Lt Gen
Raj Kadyan
General
1.
Politicians speaking in the Parliament add a lot of dressing to the substance
of what they say. The Finance Minister did the same on 14.02.2014 while
speaking on OROP. He first floridly announced that the gap between pre-2006 and
post-2006 retirees for all ranks needs to be closed. Later, coming to the
gist he had stated that the government has now decided to walk the last
mile and implement the scheme of One Rank One Pension for all Armed Forces
personnel and their dependents.
2. In
the follow-up meeting held on 26.02.2014 the Defence Minister, who was in
chair, had reiterated the following definition of OROP:
"OROP
implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces personnel retiring in
the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of
retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be
automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging
the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past
pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be
automatically passed on to the past pensioners."
3. This
definition accords with what the IESM has been projecting (except we had not
used the term 'uniform pension'). This was also the definition given by the
Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions that submitted its report on
19.12.2011.
4. The
Services prepared a draft government letter in April giving out detailed modalities
of OROP. The draft still remains under discussion.
Meetings of
Stake Holders
5.
In a subsequent meeting held on 22.04.2014, the Defence Minister constituted a
committee to work out the modalities and submit its report within
three weeks. (It is learnt that the Minister wanted the report much faster but
the PCDA expressed inability to do it in lesser time frame).
6. The
Committee has had five sittings starting with the first meeting on 02.05.2014.
Some of these were chaired by the RRM. The PCDA has been consistently
displaying an obstructionist approach and has been the main stumbling block. He
has been giving his own interpretation to various aspects of OROP. Some of
these, including the counter by the Services are given in following paras.
7. Definition
of OROP. According to PCDA, definition of OROP should be
drawn from the Finance Minister's budget 2014-15 speech vide which the gap
between pre-2006 retirees and post-2006 retirees for all ranks needs to be
closed. Here he is quoting the first part of the FMs speech
while conveniently ignoring the second part as given in Para 1 above. The
Service representatives attending the meetings have pointed this out in the
meeting and have also drawn attention to the definition given by the Rajya
Sabha Committee on Petitions.
8. Interpretation
of the Term 'Uniform Pension'. The PCDA has opined that
'Uniform' pension means pension under a uniform pay/pension structure i.e.
under the same pay scales with same qualifying service & pension
calculation formula. According to him it need not necessarily lead to same
pension for all the retirees (past & present) in the same rank and same
qualifying service because of the annual increments being given to the serving
personnel. The Services have of course countered saying uniform pension means
one/same/equal/identical pension.
9. Length
of Service. The PCDA has further held that the 'length of
service' in the OROP definition is to be treated as the number of years of
service put in by the pensioner in the rank last held. Alternatively, according
to the PCDA, if total qualifying service is to be treated for the purpose of
OROP then qualitative aspects relating to length of service in terms of number
of years rendered in each rank the service person has served before the retirement
in the last rank held, needs to be taken cognizance of. This they concede will
be difficult to implement in practice. The counter by the Services is that
length of service and qualifying service are synonymous as given in Rule 19 of
Pension Regulations 2008 as also in the MoD letter dated 17.01.2013.
10. Bridging
the Gap. The PCDA has further held that while
bridging the gap between the pre-2006 and post-2006 pensioners the benefits of
improved service conditions (viz. method of faster promotion applicable to the
current personnel) should not be extended to past pensioners. This in fact runs
against the concept of automatically passing on future enhancement to past
pensioners, which is intrinsic to the definition of OROP. The Services have pointed
this out, also underscoring the fact that the benefit of MSP and Grade Pay for
calculation of pension has already been extended to past pensioners. The
Services have further suggested that there should be a periodic review of OROP
say on yearly basis, wherein any anomaly can be addressed.
Conclusion
