OROP: Retired paramilitary personnel end stir, to return in 2016

NEW DELHI: Retired personnel of various paramilitary forces demanding One Rank One Pension ( OROP) benefits and other privileges under the ex-servicemen category today ended their three-day ' dharna' here saying they will "fall back again" by early next year.

"We are going home empty handed. For the last three days of our agitation, no one from the government or Home Ministry turned up to listen to the grievances of these heroes who are the first line of defence on various Indian borders," National General Secretary of All India Central Paramilitary Forces and Ex-servicemen Welfare Association P S Nair said.

He said the veterans will "fall back again after three months, in the first week of February, 2016 to press for their demands."

The association of former officials of forces like Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force and Sashastra Seema Bal have said their demands should be conceded as they are undertaking similar rigours and hardships as the defence forces.

The major demands of these veterans include granting of OROP to them like the military personnel, exemption of serving troops from contributory pension scheme and extending full benefits to these forces under the ex-servicemen category.

Close to 300 of these veterans had assembled at the Jantar Mantar here on November 2, very close to where a similar agitation is being held by the ex-servicemen of the armed forces for the prompt implementation of the OROP for them.

The government has recently said it will soon come out with a notification for OROP implementation for the veterans of the armed forces.

The association said it had sent a memorandum to the government after holding the protest.

The agitators had also demanded that benefits of healthcare and canteen facilities should be extended to the families of both the serving and retired personnel.

There are about nine lakh personnel serving in these forces working under the Union Home Ministry while there are an equal number of retired personnel and their families in the country.