Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said that there would soon be some "good news" on the One-Rank, One-Pension issue.
"It is going to happen soon. but a lot of things are going on in the government. I don't know when it will happen but I am telling you it will," said the Defence Minister.
The statement from the Defence Minister came as a reiteration of the government stand on the issue concerning lakhs of ex-servicemen and war widows.
Addressing ex-servicemen over the issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on its 'Mann Ki Baat' radio show promised that the NDA government would implement One-Rank, One-Pension.
The Prime Minister had, however, said that it was not possible to implement it on an immediate basis as there were several issues concerning it that needed to be addressed before putting One-Rank, One-Pension in place.
Meanwhile in June, several ex-servicemen had staged protest at Jantar Mantar in the national capital over the delay in the implementation of the same.
Around 22 lakh ex-servicemen and over six lakh war widows stand to be the immediate beneficiaries of the OROP scheme, which envisages a uniform pension for defence personnel who retire in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement.
Currently, the pension for ex-servicemen is based on the recommendations of the Pay Commission of that time when they had retired. So, a Major General who retired in 1996 draws a lower pension than a Lieutenant Colonel who retired after 1996.
However, the real crisis lies in the ranks below the officers as their pension is very low. There is a possibility that the government might extend OROP to non-officers first.
(With PTI Inputs)
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