New Delhi, Nov 7: The Centre has disbursed over ₹42,700 crores to 20.6 lakh retired defence personnel under the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme since its inception, the defence ministry said on Friday.

 

 

 

"The yearly recurring expenditure on account of OROP is about ₹7,123 crore and for about six years, starting from July 1, 2014, the total recurring expenditure worked out to approximately ₹42,740 crore," the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

 

The OROP scheme has been effective since 1 July 2014. Under the scheme, the armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service regardless gets the uniform pension, regardless of their date of retirement.

 

"Keeping in view the magnitude and complexity of defence pension, extensive consultations were held with experts and ex-servicemen before issue of government order on implementation of OROP," the official statement read.

 

OROP implies that uniform pension is paid to the Armed Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service regardless of their date of retirement. Thus, OROP implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of current and past retirees at periodic intervals.The ministry stated that ₹10,795 crore has been disbursed to 20.6 lakh defence force pensioners or family pensioners as arrears due to implementation of the OROP.

 

The armed forces personnel who retired by 30 June 2014, are covered under the OROP scheme, the ministry said. "Ex-servicemen had been agitating for implementation of OROP for nearly 45 years, but the same was not implemented before 2015," the ministry noted on Friday.