All India Ex-Services Welfare Association

LETTER TO HON'BLE PRIME MINISTER

Dear Friends

The following letter has been sent to the PM on 29 Aug 2015. 

Regards

Lt Col Inderjit Singh

Chairman 

UFESM

09811007629

UNITED FRONT OF EX SERVICEMEN

M 35 Palika Bhawan

RK Puram Sector 13

New Delhi 110066

Tel : Oil 261 12140

Fax : 24106144

Mob : 09811007629

29 Aug 2015

Respected Narendra Modi Bhai Saheb

       We appreciate your gesture in directing your Principal Secretary to open up dialogue with us and find a way to end our agitation. Please be aware that we are not here to embarrass you. How can we even think of doing that to a person for whom we worked day and night to bring him to power? We are at Jantar Mantar because we are anguished with the way we have been treated Narendra Bhai Saheb.

Police Action

2.  With what the Bureaucrats have done to make you believe that OROP is unimplementable we did not expect you to announce its implementation on Independence Day. We did however expect you to say a word or two of sympathy for what Police did to evict us from Jantar Mantar on 14 August. Even that little gesture was not shown. Your advisors would be able to reduce you to this state where you would become completely insensitive to the feelings of the Veterans is the last thing we expected from you.

Implementability of OROP

3.         Now talking about difficulties in implementing OROP. Has any of your advisors told

you that OROP has been implemented twice in the past? Yes it was sanctioned and then implemented without any difficulty, These instances are narrated in the succeeding paragraphs.

4.          High Level Empowered Committee(HLEC) 1990. The HLEC was appointed

to improve the pensions of pre 1986 pensions of Veterans. Though they were mandated to only improve the pensions of Veterans, seeing the sensitivity of the matter the Committee was seriously inclined to give OROP.

5.          This Committee however settled for One Time Increase (OTI) which was slightly less than OROP. A formula was worked out by which a Veteran got Rs 10.00 less from OROP for 15 year service. For each additional years service he got additional Rs 02.00 less. This meant a Veteran would get from Rs 10.00 to Rs 44.00 less than what he would get as OROP for service of 15 to 32 years. This was worked and disbursed in short time to the satisfaction of Veterans. The implementation for OROP does not involve any complicated calculations it is therefore much more simpler.

6.           Group Of Ministers 2005. Based on the recommendations of the Defence  Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Mr Madan Lal Khurana, a Group of Ministers

(GOM) was appointed to examine OROP demand in 2005. This GOM was headed by Mr Pranab Mukherji in his capacity as Defence Minister.(Now President of India) It gave full parity on 25 Jan 2006 with Fifth CPC rates which in other words is OROP. This was also implemented with ease and swiftly to our entire satisfaction.

Civilians Will Demand

7.         This problem of civilians demanding came up in both the above cases. They were

told by the leadership that Armed Forces are being given OROP because of their special conditions of service and compensation for early retirement at the age of 35 to 40 years, therefore it could not be given to them. They as true Patriots accepted this and backed out.

Legal Recourse by Civilians

8.         An argument that Civilians will go to the Court and get this for themselves. If they

get it the financial effect will be disastrous for the economy. The fact is that civilians know that they can not get it from any court unless they accept to adopt the terms and conditions of Service of Armed Forces.They are therefore doing every thing within their means to deny us OROP.

Money Not Available

9.         We are told that no money to give OROP. After what has been spared for various schemes, we do not accept that there is no money to give OROP. We are aware that there is about Rs 40,000.00 crores lying uncommitted in the Budget. In addition got a bonanza of Rs 70,000.00 crores by increasing VAT by 2%. With the prices of crude oil falling another boost is round the corner. With all this if there is money for OROP, it is sad for the Nation,

Chiefs Appeal

10.       Perturbed by the happenings of the past few day, four retired Chiefs have made an

earnest appeal to The President, our Commander in Chief, to intervene. Another ten Chiefs have directly appealed to you to award OROP as soon as possible as this was seriously affecting officer man relationship.

11.        We also appeal to you to grant OROP soon so that the lives of three Veterans

sitting on indefinite fast can be saved. Many more are ready to replace them if they fall. The Draft Govt Letter ( DGL) had been prepared and given to the MOD by the Service

Headquarters. The MOD has prepared the case based on this DGL. It can be issued without any delay. If any more work is required this can also be done by us to expedite matters

.

12.       What Veterans are seeking has been promised by you and approved by two Parliaments. If after all that they are denied this it will be the darkest day of our Nation.

13,        We have put across our submissions to give you a true picture about some of the

misleading statements which the bureaucrats normally make to scare the leadershié into

toeing their line for denying OROP. They may have given some more. If these could be given to us we can put across the truth about those also and help you to fulfil your promise.

             With warmest regards and best wishes

Yours Sincerely

Lt Col Inderjit Singh

Chairman

UFESM

Lt Gen Balbir Singh Yadav                                                                 Maj  Gen Satbir Singh

Advisor                                                                                         Advisor

UFESM                                                                                        UFESM