NEW DELHI: The defence ministry on Wednesday clarified there was “no change” in its position that all military personnel who opted for premature retirement (PMR) before the November 2015 notification for one rank, one pension (OROP) will continue to get its benefits, while the ones who do so after that deadline will not.

The MoD’s move to rectify “some typographical errors” in its OROP notification has caused some alarm in military circles that the government was withdrawing OROP for personnel who had opted for PMR before November 2015.

“There is no change…the original order stands. As for representations that military personnel who opt for PMR after November 2015 should also be considered for OROP, the issue is under examination,” said an official.

As earlier reported by TOI, the government is examining whether it should slightly relax the norms for denial of OROP benefits to fresh PMR cases.

One proposal is that OROP should be granted to “superseded” officers who take PMR after continuing in service for four additional years.

Similarly, jawans and junior commissioned officers who serve for three additional years after they get superseded should also get OROP.

What is OROP?

One Rank One Pension (OROP) is a scheme in which every eligible candidate retiring in a particular rank gets the same pension, irrespective of his date of retirement. Till now, soldiers who retired more recently receive more pension than those who retired earlier because pensions are dependent on last salary received and successive pay commissions have raised salaries.

Advantages:

This scheme is a compensation for early retirement and is a national obligation.

Soldiers have short careers because jawans usually retire at the age of 35 years whereas a civilain retires at 60. To make up for the shorter working lives of these soldiers, they need compensation that is comparable to what a soldier of same rank retiring today would get from the government.

Lt. Gen Raj Kadyan (Chairman of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement) says, “The stark difference can be seen after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission. For equal service, a Sepoy who retired prior to 1996, gets 82% lower pension than a Sepoy who retires after 2006. Similarly, among officers, a pre-1996 Major gets 53% lower pension than his post 2006 counterpart.” The government has announced this revised benefits along with arrears under OROP scheme to more than 2 lakh pensioners.

Disadvantages:

• Due to the increase in the defense pension budget, the current liability will increase from Rs. 60,238 crore to Rs. 64959.34 crore i.e. an increase of Rs. 4721.34 for the financial year 2015–16.
• Often it happens that people who retire in the same rank earn different pensions because they have served for a longer time in that rank. For example: A Colonel who served for 12 years earns more than the Colonel who served for only 4 years in the same rank. Equating their pensions was unlikely to withstand a legal challenge.
• The government is also afraid that there might be a similar demand from the civilian pensioners in the near future and hence, the public pressure would be very difficult to handle.