Tuesday 8 July 2014

Dear friends,

I was shocked to go through a mail by self appointed sole proprietors of the veterans affairs to the RM about the proceedings of the presentation that the Chiefs made to him.
 

I have also written a letter to the Hon'ble RM in the hope that the damage done by our representative would be repaired to at least manageable proportions. The mail to RM is given below for your information. I request you to kindly read that first before you proceed any further.

Would somebody ask them why they inflated the amount for OROP given by Koshiary Committee? It could not be their memory that could have failed them, nor could this be ignorance, claiming as they do to have been responsible for every word in the Report, in the process under rating the wisdom of experienced leadership. It would be interesting to find out from them including their cronies, whether they were supporting our cause or that of the Babus stand of prohibitive cost.

Further somebody may ask these friends why were the cases of reservists, majors and Lt Cols not taken up for inclusion initially and then after we got these in, for effective articulation for implementation in the DGL? We had spoken to the PC Cell representatives about these matters. They have tried to bring these in but the statement leaves a lot of scope for misinterpretation. Since they were invited to the presentation we presume that they must have been involved more seriously with the PC Cell during preparatory stage of the presentation, due primarily to the rank conscious hierarchy of the Armed Forces. While we on our short interactions could bring home to them the basic methodology for getting the best through, could some body ask these gentlemen what did they do to make it a clear cut effective statement which could not be misinterpreted?

I must however compliment him for covering his own problem of pension with utmost clarity and unambiguity. I pray that is solved as per his projection so that he can spare some time to think seriously about the men he may have commanded.

with warmest regards,

Lt Col Inderjit Singh
Chairman
Mob : 09811007629

==========================================================

18 Jun 2014

To,
The Hon’ble
Sh. Arun Jaitley,
Defence Minister
Govt. of India
South Block,
New Delhi-110011

Sub: IMPLEMENTATION OF ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP)

Dear Sh Arun Jaitley,

In 2011 Sh Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Hon'ble MP, was very kind to take up OROP with the Petitions Committee of the Rajya Sabha. Consequently a Committee under the Chairmanship of Sh Bhagat Singh Koshiary was appointed to examine the issue and make recommendations. This Committee very rightly invited all Veterans organizations for getting the inputs. Many organizations made their presentations, so did we.

2. An organization which has the habit of claiming credit for every good thing the Govt announces quickly moved to first take credit for getting the Koshiary Committee appointed and then when the report came in went on to claim credit for every recommendation they made. With the help of our friend running a blog they made every one believe that they were the one who got it going. With such claims one should assume that they are aware of every word important or unimportant of the Report. Unfortunately the truth is far removed from what they stated in their mail to you. To know the truth read on.

3. On 12 Jun a presentation on OROP was made by the three Chiefs to you. A brief on the proceedings have been sent to you for approval and implementation thereafter. An extract from their mail is given below :-

"Based on the above definition, Koshyari Committee after due deliberations
with the Secretary Finance and secretary expenditure had
worked out the requirement of funds of Rs 3000 Crores in 2011. 
With 10 percent of inflation every year, it works out to Rs 4000 Crores in 2014.
 
This amount is nothing for the Nation
to meet the long pending demand of defence fraternity."

4. I also give below an extract of the Koshiary Committee Report itself :-

The Committee has taken note of the fact that a sum of Rs.1300 crores is 
the total financial liability for the year 2011-12 in case OROP is implemented 
fully for all the defence personnel in the country across the board. 
The Committee was informed that out of this, 1065 crores would go to retirees 
belonging to Post Below Officer Ranks (PBOR) while the Commissioned Officers 
would be getting the remaining i.e. 235 crores. The Committee felt that 
1300 crores is not a very big amount for a country of our size and economy 
for meeting the long pending demand of the armed forces of the country. 
The Committee understand that this 1300 crores is the expenditure for 
one year which might increase at the rate of 10 percent annually. 
Even if it is so, the Committee does not consider this amount to be high, 
keeping in view the objective for which it would be spent.
5. Going through both the extracts you would notice that while his mail to you says the expenditure as per report is Rs 3000.00 crores the Report says it is Rs 1300.00 crores only. The players who claim to be representing the Veterans have messed up on the most important figure on the most important occasion. We do not know why was this high figures quoted. Did that happen because of his ignorance or some ulterior motive? Was he trying to project our cause or was he there to support the stand of the Babus of prohibited cost? 

6. The next point that needs to be examined is his statement about the DGL produced by the Service HQs which reads-

"The Draft Govt Letter (DGL) prepared by the Services HQ
for the implementation of OROP as per the accepted definition
as already announced in the Parliament and
as already issued in writing by the Govt,
be sanctioned and implementation letter issued at the earliest."

7. To understand this matter we need to go back to the definition itself. When we say same pension it means all kinds of pensions to be the same. It means the service pension, disability pension, family pensions, dependent pension fall within the definition of OROP. These should find a definite clear cut statement in the DGL for disbursement rather than a mere request for including in the DGL.

8. Other matters that need to be covered by a definite statement in the DGL are-

a) There should be clear cut instructions in the DGL for working out the fresh pensions of Majors and selection grade Lt Cols affected by AV Committee report.

b) The matter with regard to Reservists has been totally ignored in the DGL. These veterans were accepted as sepoys for pension by the Fifth CPC and granted the pension of a sepoy. The Sixth CPC for unknown reasons downgraded them. This matter should be corrected and reservists granted the pension of a sepoy with seventeen years service. A definite statement on this in the DGL should be incorporated before it is finally approved.

9. We appeal to you that before finalizing the draft these matters are included for implementation. We are prepared to come and make a presentation on these issues if required.

Yours faithfully,

(Inderjit Singh)
Lt Col (Retd)
Chairman

Copy to:-

The Hon’ble
Sh Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)
New Delhi – 110 001
The Hon’ble
Shri Rao Inderjit Singh
Raksha Rajya Mantri
C-1/14 Lodi Garden
New Delhi - 110 003
General Bikram Singh,
PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC
Chief of the Army Staff &
Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee
Integrated HQs of Armed Forces (Army)
South Block, New Delhi-110011
Admiral RK Dhowan,
PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC,
Chief of the Naval Staff
Integrated HQs of Armed Forces (Navy)
South Block, New Delhi-110011
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha
PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC
Chief of the Air Staff
Indian Air Force
Vayu Bhawan, New Delhi 110011

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