Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday said the expenditure for implementing One Rank One Pension will be just 2.2 percent more from the allocated budget for the defence ministry.
"Only 2.2 percent additionally is needed for implementing One Rank One Pension. I can recuperate that amount by saving wastages," said Parrikar at a seminar organised by industrial chamber Ficci.
The minister said the cost can be recovered by using "innovative methods" and removing middlemen.
Later, responding to a question on the ongoing agitation, he said: "It is a democratic right (to protest), you cannot take it away."
The comments came on a day when veterans organised a rally, demanding that the government remove "anomalies" in the scheme announced by it.
