JK News Today
Srinagar, November 3
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar assured the ex-servicemen that all the issues standing as hurdle between them and the One Rank One Pension would be sorted out in two months, as there were only one lakh soldiers who remain uncovered by this scheme.
“ We are conscious of this. There are certain technical glitches, which, we hope to remove soon, say in two months’ time,” he told a rally of ex-servicemen in the Central Kashmir district of Budgam.
He is on a two-day visit of Kashmir since yesterday. He had visited the Uri brigade headquarters, the scene of bloody terror assault on September 18, when 19 soldiers lost their lives.
His remarks that only one lakh ex-soldiers had not been covered by the OROP assume significance after an ex-servicemen Ram Kishen Grewal committed suicide in Delhi when he was denied a meeting with Parrikar.
While the government had been maintaining that all the ex-servicemen have been covered by the scheme for which they were agitating for months early this year , the revelation by the minister vindicated the ex-soldier’s stand that all ex-servicemen have not been given the benefit of OROP.
Grewal was cremated in Delhi today. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal attended his funeral.
Kejriwal has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs one crore for the family of the ex-soldier.
