Welcoming the government’s decision to implement OROP, agitating ex-servicemen today announced withdrawal of their hunger strike but decided to continue their protest till all ‘sticky’ issues are resolved.
They said revision of pension after a gap of five years as announced by the government, is not acceptable to them, besides the appointment of a one-man judicial commission to examine various aspects of one rank-one pension (OROP).
Four-point acceptance
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Maj Gen (Retd) Satbir Singh, leader of the association leading the agitation, said the protest will continue till four specific points raised by ex-servicemen are accepted by the government. “We urge all those who are on hunger strike to withdraw it, as the PM has clarified on the issue of premature retirement. But our protest will continue till the government accepts four points raised by us,” he said.
He said ex-servicemen may resume hunger strike if the government fails to resolve the pending issues. “We thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling the promise of one rank-one pension, and thank the defence minister; but there are four issues to be resolved, including the period of equalisation of pension,” Singh said.
The veterans, who have been pressing for OROP for four decades, won a partial victory yesterday with the government announcing that it would implement it. But the veterans rejected the decision and decided to continue their agitation. The issue of whether the scheme would cover ex-servicemen who have taken premature retirement had emerged as a major sticking point.
They met Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar yesterday and later said his clarification in this regard was “satisfying”.