NEW DELHI: The pending 5-yearly review of the One Rank One Pension scheme for ex-servicemen came up for discussion at the parliamentary standing committee on defence on Friday.
The discussion, sources said, began when a ruling party MP pointed out that the 5-yearly revision of OROP was due and sought to know from the government when the monies will be released. In response, comptroller general of defence accounts and secretary (pensions) are understood to have informed the House panel that the government is “working on it and will implement the changes shortly”.
The lack of clarity, however, prompted a follow-up query by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who asked the government for a “time-bound response”. “Will it be implemented in one month, one year or two years,” Gandhi is understood to have asked the officials. Sources said some MPs also suggested that OROP should be linked to the Pay Commission mechanism for a periodic review.
The defence ministry informed the panel that while a revision was due, some ex-servicemen have moved Supreme Court demanding an annual revision in place of one every 5 years. With the matter under SC scrutiny, any clarifications, they said, could only be offered in court. They did, however, clarify that a Judicial Committee has been set up to review shortcomings in the scheme’s implementation and anomalies will be fixed “in at the most one more year.”
On Friday, the defence panel also discussed the status of the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Healthcare Scheme, with over 55 lakh registered beneficiaries. Emphasising the need to increase the number of service hospitals, members pointed to concerns over empaneled private hospitalsworking up inflated bills, especially during Covid-related emergencies. The government said it has engaged a private agency to scrutinise the bills, and is working on “streamlining” the ECHS.
Defence ministry officials also told the House panel they are “working out the modalities” for building and running Sainik schools on a Public-Private Partnership model, and defended the use of CBSE Board syllabus at Sainik Schools, adding that their focus was to groom future officers.