Taking a jibe at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh on Friday assured that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government will soon announce the One Rank One Petition (OROP) scheme.
"Rahul Gandhi when he went there at the dharna of OROP, he heard 'Rahul Gandhi go back' because he and his government was there for 3650 days, during which he should spell out which date they had given. And also he must explain, why the outgoing Finance Minister Mr. Chidambaram only sanctioned 500 crore OROP. Is that enough for rolling out OROP?," Singh told ANI.
"As far as BJP is concerned, let me assure that the government led by Mr. Narendra Modi is committed towards it. It is unambiguous commitment. Some time is being taken but we want to roll it out systematically. Kindly give us that time," he added.
Singh further mentioned that it is a complicated system as there needs to be cut-off dates and there needs to be a kind of a roll out, which is very systematic.
"It doesn't snowball into another crisis. So, all those things are being worked out. There is a discussion going on with different ex-servicemen. I am confident that very shortly it will be announced by the government," he added.
The ex-servicemen were today asked to vacate the Jantar Mantar by the NDMC, which said that it was an exercise aimed at ensuring security ahead of the Independence Day.
The ex-servicemen, who have been protesting against the delay in the implementation of the scheme, said they will wait till August 15 for the announcement and added that they would step up their protests if the government does not pay heed to their demands.
One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme has been a long-standing demand of nearly three-million ex-servicemen and war widows in the country. It seeks to ensure that a uniform pension is paid to defence personnel, who retire at the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement.
