ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP) CONTROVERSY

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 ONE RANK ONE PENSION (OROP) CONTROVERSY

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• Indira Gandhi government, 1973: In 1973, the Indira Gandhi govt. terminated the 26-year old ‘One Rank One Pension’ basis for deciding pension of Indian Armed Forces Personnel. 
• Why they did so: The Government, on the basis of III Central Pay Commission (CPC) report, increased the pension of civilians, and reduced the pension of soldiers, Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs) and Junior commissioned Officers (JCOs), with the caveat that for full pension the min service was 33 yrs. The reason given was to ensure ‘equivalence’ of Armed Forces pensions with civilians.
• 1986 Rank Pay concept: The concept of rank-pay introduced in 1986 affected serving and retired officers and started the process of undermining military ranks and making them subordinate to the police. The legacy of rank-pay, and 4th CPC, founded echo in the 6th CPC, and the 7th CPC. 
• OROP SCHEME
• What it is: The One Rank One Pension scheme (OROP) promises equal pension to military personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of the date of retirement. It has been a longstanding demand.
• The scheme was first announced by the late Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in 2015. He had said that 

1. The Government respected its Defence Forces and Ex-Servicemen and was proud of their devotion
2. The issue of “One Rank One Pension” (OROP) was pending for nearly four decades
3. PM Modi had reiterated the commitment to implement OROP for Ex-Servicemen under military pension
4. The reality is that to implement OROP, the estimated cost would be Rs. 8,000 to 10,000 crore in 2015
5. The main argument for OROP is that the Defence personnel retire early and thus are not able to get the benefits of serving till normal retirement age. The govt. has taken a decision to implement the OROP.

• Logic given by Parrikar in 2015: OROP will mean that 

1. uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement
2. Future enhancements in the rates of pension would be automatically passed on to the past pensioners
3. This will bridge the gap between the rate of pension of current & past pensioners at periodic intervals.

• Specific aspects of the OROP scheme:

1. Benefit will be given with effect from 1st July, 2014  (On 15th August 2015, the PM had announced that final decision was still pending due to complexities of OROP, leading to a lot of heartburn in veterans)
2. Arrears will be paid in four half-yearly instalments. All widows will be paid arrears in one instalment
3. To begin with, OROP would be fixed on the basis of calendar year 2013
4. Pension will be re-fixed for all pensioners retiring in the same rank and with the same length of service as the average of minimum and maximum pension in 2013
5. Those drawing pensions above average will be protected
6. Personnel who voluntarily retire will not be covered under the OROP scheme.
7. In future, the pension would be re-fixed every 5 years (demand from veterans was for 2 years)

• Implementation: Government implemented OROP in November 2015. Detailed instructions with tables indicating revised pension for each rank and each category was issued on 03 February 2016. From then, a sum of Rs.10,788.23 crore was disbursed up to 30 September 2017 (compiled till 31 March 2018) to Defence /Family pensioners.
• First pension revision: A Committee was formed by the Defence Minister in June 2019 under the Chairmanship of Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) to work out the first revision of pension under OROP.
• History and background: The veterans say the OROP protest movement is not just about pension alone, but about justice, equity, honor, and national security. The controversy started in 1973 when the Indira Gandhi govt. terminated the 26-year old ‘One Rank One Pension’ basis for deciding pension of Indian Armed Forces Personnel. It has continued till date!
• What was Rank Pay: It was implemented by the Rajiv Gandhi Government in 1986, and reduced the basic-pay, or grade pay, of seven armed armed officers ranks of 2nd Lieutenant, Lieutenant, captain, majors, lt-colonel, colonels, and brigadiers, and their equivalent in the Air Force and the Navy by fixed amounts designated as 'rank-pay'. The reduction in the basic-pay (which was the established basis of determining rank equivalences between armed forces officers and civilian and police counterparts) altered long established historical grade-pay equivalences or parities between armed forces officers and police officers. In 2012, reduction in armed forces grade-pay, which was a subject of litigation since 1994, was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of India.
• Problem continued: The implementation by Government in 2016 of separate pay matrix for the police, and the armed forces, accentuated the anomalies.
• Problem at the MoD: The higher bureaucracy in Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD), unlike other countries, is staffed entirely by civil service officers on deputation, who have never served in the armed forces or are familiar with its working or ethos. The entire MOD bureaucracy is covered by Apex OROP, but has opposed OROP for the Armed Forces.
• UPA government: The UPA Government, following the recommendations of the sixth CPC, mandated in 2008, six time scale pay grade promotions on completion of 4, 9, 13, 14, 16/18 years of service for all officers in civil services including defense civilian officers in the MOD. In approved three time scale pay upgrade-promotions for armed forces officers on completion of 2, 6, and 13 years of service, and at a far lower scale. It led to widespread disappointment amongst veterans and serving officers.
• Koshyari Committee: A ten-member all-party Parliamentary Panel – the Koshyari Committee – was set up to examine the OROP issue. Its report in December 2011 unanimously found merit in OROP and strongly recommended its implementation. It defined OROP concept as – “OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the Armed Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.”
• Accepted: The Koshyari Committee definition of OROP was accepted by the Government, endorsed by Parliament, and by ex-servicemen and ex-servicemen organizations. But UPA govt. was slow in implementing it.
• Enter Modi: The BJP PM candidate declared during 2014 campaigning that he will implement OROP, if elected. Promised continued after he won the elections, but in May 2015, PM Modi controversially declared that the term OROP still needed to be defined.
• Enter Arun Jaitley: He said in August 2015 that “I have my own formula on what OROP means. Somebody else may have their own formula on OROP but it has to be within reasonable and rational criteria. You can't have an OROP where pensions are revised every month or every year”.
• Implementation from Feb. 2016: In the face of mounting protest and resentment, Modi govt. announced it would implement the new pension scheme and did so in February 2016. But the terms were not found satisfactory, and litigation continued.
• Potential beneficiaries of OROP: They are  about 2.6 million ex-servicemen, and 60,000 widows, including war widows, of whom about 86 percent are widows, JCOs, NCOs, and other ranks, about 14 percent are officers. Detailed instructions with tables indicating revised pension for each rank and each category was issued on 03 February 2016. From then, a sum of Rs.10,788.23 crore was disbursed up to 30 September 2017 (compiled till 31 March 2018) to Defence /Family pensioners. 
• First pension revision: A Committee was formed by the Defence Minister in June 2019 under the Chairmanship of Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) to work out the first revision of pension under OROP.

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