Revision of Defence pension under One Rank One Pension Scheme has been conducted earlier in OROP-I and OROP-2 effective wef July 2014 and July 2019 respectively. As per schedule of OROP Revision, the pension of all Armed Forces pensioners including family pension, disability pension, invalid pension etc will be revised and upward revision effect will be awarded at every 5 years. Whereas at the recommendation stage it was demanded and recommended to revise pension under OROP Scheme in every year.
So, as per the schedule, the next revision of pension under OROP Scheme will be accorded with effect from 01 July 2024. The OROP-2 was effective wef July 2014 but due to pending legal cases, the revision was carried out during December 2022 and the arrears amount is yet to be paid in full and final. The 3 Installments have already been paid to eligible pensioners and the last installment is likely to be paid in Feb 2024.
If everything goes fine, Defence pensioners will get another revision under OROP – 3 during July 2024. Earlier it has been noticed that the court cases filed to streamline the procedure of OROP pension table, have totally failed to stand. Ultimately, the amount of pension decided by the Govt authority at the formula of average pension (mean and median) stands to be implemented and fixed.
In the recent past it has been observed that thousands of veterans JCOs/OR gathered at Jantar Mantar and various placed throughout the country to protest against the discriminant and improper OROP pension revision methodology adopted by the present Govt. Veterans agitated and demanded that mode of Fixation of pension should be streamlined in compliance with the recommendation of the OROP Committee formed by the Govt. According to the recommendation of the various committee formed by the govt before implementation of OROP system, pension of all veterans and family pensioners should be fixed as per the highest pension drawn by the pensioner in any particular rank and length of service.
Whereas MoD has fixed the pension for Veterans and Family pensioners as per average of highest and lowest amount of pension drawn by the pensioners in any rank and length of service which is contrary to the real motto of the OROP scheme. The basic aim of the OROP as demanded and accepted by the Govt in the year 2015 that the pension of the pensioners with equal rank and length of service should be always equal and yearly revision was also demanded and recommended.
In the last instance, during the revision period of OROP-2 it has been noticed that, due to court cases, the implementation of 2nd revision was delayed approx 3 years. Veterans are still showing agitation and protest in demand of real and proper OROP at the capital and district HQs throughout India. But the MoD is not bothered about this and no actions has been initiated to reform the existing OROP in favour of the veterans. So, it may be expected that the OROP-3 will be implemented during the schedule period with the methodology prevailed. No changes and modification is expected as govt has not accepted the demand of the veterans to consider it in positive ways.