One Rank One Pension (OROP) will have a significant impact on the country's fiscal bill and the overall cost will be around Rs 16,000 crore.
Veterans bemoan the 'lack of intention' shown by the Modi sarkar, who seem to have reneged on their poll promise.
The government on Monday announced that it has credited revised pensionary benefits along with arrears under One Rank-One Pension scheme to more than 2 lakh pensioners drawing service and disability pensions.
The total salary and pension bill of the central government, which will also include Railway employees, will go up from estimated Rs 4.33 lakh crore to Rs 5.35 lakh crore during 2016-17
'One Rank One Pension is needed immediately and more urgently for jawans and widows,' one elderly soldier tells Sudhir Bisht at Delhi's Jantar Mantar.
Social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday said he has decided to suspend his agitation scheduled on October 2 in New Delhi as the Central government allowed the Land Ordinance to lapse and implemented the One Rank One Pension OROP) for ex-servicemen.
'There were tears in my eyes when I parted with my medals. I thought was it for this moment did I become a soldier?' In 2008, Captain H Balakrishnan (retd) of the Indian Navy returned all his medals to the President of India to protest the government's failure to implement the One Rank One Pension scheme.
Prez said basic pension of ex-servicemen of the Indian Army has increased by 2.57 times as compared to pension of December 31, 2015.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said his ministry had completed all formalities in respect of the one rank-one pension scheme for ex-servicemen and nobody should try to "politicise" the issue.
RK Dhowan stressed that OROP has been a "priority area" and the issue has been taken up with the ministry.
Modi govt must take measures to prevent widening of fiscal deficit.
Participating in the debate on the budget, leaders of parties like the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Aam Aadmi Party and Left launched an all-out attack on the BJP government for allegedly selling off the country's assets and PSUs to big industrialists.
The PM hailed the armed forces in context of Kargil Vijay Divas and paid tributes to the fallen heroes.
Ex-servicemen are unhappy with the pension hike announced by government saying it amounted to "wrong and deceitful" treatment of their long-pending 'One Rank One Pension' demand and vowed to continue struggle for their rights.
'We should hope and pray that the PM's sentiment is not held ransom by machinations and craftiness of a few junior babus who throw in an imaginary impediment at every welfare measure and snigger and giggle at the sidelines every time a soldier is ill at ease,' says Major Navdeep Singh on the one rank one pension debate.
Another veteran Havildar Saheb Singh (retired) took his place and began the fast-unto-death.
Earlier, Singh had said that the "mental state" of Grewal needed to be probed before drawing conclusions about his extreme action.
Nobody bothered to articulate the upsides; instead, the four-year tour of duty and denial of life-long pensions got played up.
Job-seekers for government and related opportunities found that their future was at risk, points out Shreekant Sambrani.
'Think about this: A widow of a jawan is drawing only Rs 3,500. If OROP is implemented, she will get additional Rs 1,500. These poor girls are young and have no source of income; they are trying their best to just make ends meet. It is the pain of these situations that has driven me to this.' 'We don't want to put pressure on the government -- that's not our intention. We have full faith in our prime minister. We are asking for a meeting with him, and when we get that, we are sure he will not only give us what we are asking for, but 10 per cent extra.' Major General Satbir Singh, who headed the OROP agitation at Jantar Mantar, speaks out.
'Political parties have appropriated our military victories -- the Kargil war is the BJP's and the Bangladesh war is the Congress's -- what is going on?' As Uttarakhand -- where faujis number nearly 40% of the state's population -- prepares to vote, Rediff.com's Archana Masih discovers what upsets retired soldiers in Uttarakhand the most is a forgotten protest in the heart of Delhi.
A photo of the prime minister hugging Indian Space Research Organisation chief K Sivan after a last-minute setback that led to the loss of lander Vikram, was also put on display for visitors.
'We have not seen even during Vajpayee's time what Modi and the BJP has adopted now.'
Union minister and former Army Chief General (retd) V K Singh on Wednesay said he has firm faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had taken a pledge to implement the OROP scheme for ex-servicemen.
Modi said that unlike other parties that believe in keeping people weak so that their dependence on them never ends and their "crown" remains intact, the BJP believes in empowering them and making them independent.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar adds that the matter will be resolved within two months.
"Before elections, the demand for One Rank One Pension was an adhikaar, now it is 'agitation' and 'protest'? Obviously, we feel let down, we feel angry," Colonel Dilbag Dabas (retired) tells Insiyah Vahanvaty.
It is worrisome that salaries are consuming as much expenditure as equipment.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi on Saturday refrained from commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech.
Top ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders joined a crucial three-day meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates that began in New Delhi on Wednesday to brainstorm over key social and economic issues including those confronting the Modi government.
Wing Commander Suresh Damodar Karnik (retired), hero of the 1971 war, has politely declined an invitation extended by Shiv Shahir Babasaheb Purandare for a function to be held on May 28 in the presence of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Showering his praise on the armed forces guarding the nation, Prime Minister Modi earlier on Sunday dedicated this year's Diwali to the jawans.
PM Modi asserted that the army does not believe in speaking but in displaying its valour.
Modi govt faces extra spending burden due to policies like 7th Pay Commission and OROP
Rs 111,294 crore has been allocated for army salaries. The Rs 113,278 crore allocated for army pensions surpasses that. Army planners are worried about this drain on funds that could otherwise go towards equipment modernisation.
The 70-year-old ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal from Haryana's Bhiwani district had allegedly consumed poison.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi backed the long-pending demand of 'One Rank, One Pension' for former servicemen assuring them that he will make all efforts to ensure it is met at the earliest.
Instead of ramming through change, Mr Parrikar has tied his own hands by placing reform at the mercy of numerous committees, says Ajai Shukla.
Attacking Congress for disrupting Lok Sabha proceedings in the Monsoon session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said 40 members of Parliament are "conspiring" and "playing" with democracy by "blocking" parliamentary process.
"One was 'AP' and the other was 'Fam'. 'AP' stands for Ahmed Patel and 'Fam' stands for family. Have you heard of Ahmed Patel? Which family is he close to?" Modi asked the crowd at a rally in Dehradun.
ADB too had projected Indian's economic growth for current fiscal at 7.6 per cent
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