The agitation demanding the implementation of OROP has been on for over two months.
Talks between the government and the army veterans demanding the implementation of One Rank One Pension scheme held this evening has remained inconclusive. The veterans have again turned down the government's suggestion of implementing the scheme from 2015 instead of 2014, the key issue on which the talks have been stuck, sources told NDTV.
Here are the latest developments:
The meeting with Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh took place this evening, hours after a second army veteran was hospitalised and Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to handle the One Rank One Pension issue.
Top government sources told NDTV that the government is committed to implement OROP -- as reiterated by PM Modi in his Independence Day address -- but it won't want to be pressurised into making the announcement.
Sources told NDTV that a "positive movement" is expected on the issue this week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi is handling the matter. There ae speculations that the announcement will be made on August 28, the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war with Pakistan.
Earlier today, Havaldar (Retd) Ashok Singh Chauhan, was taken to the Army Research and Referral (R&R) hospital after suffering from "muscle atrophy". Havaldar (Retd) Major Singh, who is also on hunger strike, refused medical check-up.
The ex-servicemen's meeting with the government came with a view to settling the differences -- the chief one being the date from which the scheme will be implemented. Government sources say the time difference would mean an expenditure of Rs. 20,000 crore instead of the expected Rs. 8,000 crore.
On Monday, 63-year-old Col (Retd) Pushpender Singh, who was among the few army veterans on an indefinite hunger-strike at Delhi's Jantar Mantar since August 16, had to be hospitalised.
The army veterans had gone on indefinite hunger as the protests demanding the implementation of OROP escalated on Independence Day. The announcement was expected to be the centerpiece of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
Two days later, 10 former service chiefs wrote to PM Modi, expressing "dismay" at the government's handling of OROP and urging it to "settle this issue expeditiously and in an urgent time frame."
The veterans have repeatedly reminded PM Modi that OROP was one of his key promises in the run-up to the national election last year.
The implementation of OROP will give equal pension to servicemen retiring at the same rank regardless of when they retire. At present, a soldier who retired many years ago is paid far less than someone several ranks junior to him retiring now. It is expected to benefit 3 million former soldiers.
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