lakh serving jawans, the government substantially increased the
pension of ex-servicemen.
The new, revised pension would be implemented beginning this month,
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha while presenting
the Budget for 2009-10.
In essence, the government has accepted the recommendation of the
high-level committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Mr. K M Chandrasekhar
that was set up in April to look into the defence pensioners' demands.
"Based on the recommendation of the committee headed by Cabinet
Secretary on 'One Rank-One Pension' (OROP), the government has decided
to substantially improve the pension of pre-January one, 2006 defence
pensioners below officer rank and bring pre-October 10, 1997
pensioners on par with post- October 10, 1997 pensioners,"
Mr.Mukherjee said.
It may be noted that the pre-January 1, 2006, pensioners were affected
following implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations
last October, while the pre- and post-October 10, 1997, pensioners
were impacted by the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations.
For long, organisations of ex-servicemen had been demanding that the
disparity in pension to personnel holding the same rank and service
record, but retiring at different points of time, be removed.The
decision will benefit a large number of soldiers, especially those who
retired before 1996.
