OROP Arrears Paid in Record Time: Govt

The Government said it has kept its promise with regard to the decision taken on 05 September 2015 to implement the demand of Ex-Servicemen for One Rank One Pension (OROP) and ensured that payments have been made in record time by issuing orders through a notification on 07 November 2015 by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (ESW) of the Ministry of Defence.

In three months since the issue of these orders, the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (ESW) brought out detailed OROP tables on 03 February 2016, which are available on their website www.desw.gov.in. The 101 tables in these implementation orders contain revised pension of different ranks and categories overcoming the hurdles faced in 2012 when the implementation of CSC-2012 and 6th CPC had taken a longer time.

More than two-thirds of the Ex-Servicemen have now been paid the OROP arrears and the money reached the accounts of 13.02 lakh pensioners amounting to about Rs.2,293 crore. This amount has been released through Defence Pension Disbursing Offices (DPDOs), the State Bank of India (SBI) and the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

As on March 17, the DPDOs have released an amount of about Rs. 606 crore to about 3.20 lakh defence personnel. Of this amount, the SBI has released as of March 17 an amount of Rs. 1,337 crore to 7.75 lakh pensioners which includes Family Pension cases. The PNB has released as on March 17, an amount of about Rs. 350 crore to about 2.07 lakh pensioners which includes Family Pension cases, said a Defence Ministry statement.

Other Banks who have also been assigned the task of disbursement of revised defence pension to Ex-Servicemen have been directed to complete the process of payment latest by March end, it said. Those who have not received their payments or faced problems in receiving the payments, can file their grievances at the following web page of the DESW, http://pgportal.gov.in/pension/RegistrationForm.aspx.