New Delhi, August 31: Finance minister Arun Jaitley Monday virtually ruled out annual revision of pension as demanded by agitating ex-servicemen under ‘One rank, one pension’ (OROP) but said government will safeguard interests of soldiers retiring at an early age through higher pensions.
Annul revision in pensions does not happen anywhere in the world, he said. Jaitley said the government was committed to OROP but the “only difficulty” is the “arithmetical translation”. “I have my own formula on what OROP means. Somebody else may have their own formula on OROP but it has to be within reasonable and rational criteria. You can’t have an OROP where pensions are revised every month or every year,” he said.
He said recommendations of 7th Pay Commission for government employees was coming shortly. “I have been very vigilant about fiscal prudence and therefore my job is really that of a housewife in the sense that you must measure every rupee that the house spends so that you don’t overspend and then borrow and if you start borrowing beyond a point you indulge in fiscal indiscipline,” Jaitley told the media.
Ex-servicemen have been agitating for 78 days at Jantar Mantar here demanding implementation of OROP, including annual revision of pension. “We accept the principle (of OROP). We will implement the principle but then let us not create incidence which are going to set (precedent for) other segments of the society to also start demanding (the same),” Jaitley said. PTI
