India’s defence accounts department (DAD) is working to disburse arrears running into thousands of crores to around 2.5 million defence pensioners by March 15 in line with a Supreme Court order on clearing outstanding payments to the ex-servicemen under the one rank, one pension (OROP) scheme, officials said on Tuesday.
The top court on Monday rebuked the Union government for delaying payments under the scheme, and following its observations, the defence ministry instructed the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) to release OROP arrears in a single instalment. DAD is headed by the CGDA.
“We have received the necessary instructions from the defence ministry, and work is in full swing to disburse the arrears by March 15, the deadline fixed by the Supreme Court. There’s no question of not meeting the deadline,” said a CGDA official, asking not to be named.
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On January 9, the Supreme Court directed the government to clear the pension arrears of nearly 2.5 million ex-servicemen by March 15. However, on January 20, a communication was issued by the ministry, stating that the arrears will be released in four half-yearly instalments for former servicemen, and in a single tranche for gallantry award winners and those availing of family pension.
The January 9 order was the third extension granted to the Centre, following the March 2022 judgment of the top court affirming the OROP scheme, which entailed equal pension to military personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of the date of their retirement. The first extension of three months was granted in June 2022 and the second for the same length of time in September.
Retired jawans will get OROP arrears amounting to ₹87,000, colonels ₹4.42 lakh and lieutenant generals ₹4.32 lakh.
“It is heartening to note that the defence ministry has instructed CGDA to pay OROP arrears to veterans in one go as directed by the top court, and the latter has already started working towards it,” said military affairs expert lieutenant general DB Shekatkar (retd). “Many of the beneficiaries and their families are of advanced age, and it is critical they get their dues at the earliest.”
OROP arrears running into thousands of crores could have been paid in a matter of days if all defence pensioners were on the new online pension disbursing system called Sparsh, the officials said. Sparsh, or System for Pension Administration (Raksha), involves crediting pensions directly into the accounts of former servicemen without relying on any external intermediary.
“We started disbursing the first instalment of the arrears to ex-servicemen, who are on the Sparsh platform, on January 28, and would have completed the process for everyone eligible, including gallantry awardees and family pensioners, by February 28,” said a second official, also asking not to be named. “All ex-servicemen, including those who are not on Sparsh, will get their OROP arrears in the next two weeks.”
While Sparsh and Defence Pension Disbursement Offices (DPDOs) come under CGDA, the latter is working closely with other agencies like banks and state treasuries, who also disburse pensions, to meet the deadline set by the apex court, the officials said.
India has around 3.3 million defence pensioners. About 2.2 million of them have been moved to the new system and the migration of the remaining 1.1 million will be complete in the coming months, they said.
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The Union cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had in December approved the revision of pension of ex-servicemen and family pensioners under the OROP scheme. With that, around 25 lakh defence pensioners became eligible for arrears amounting to ₹23,638 crore.
The scheme, implemented in 2015, envisaged a revision every five years. The revision came after the Supreme Court in September allowed the Centre time till December to implement the revised OROP scheme after being told by the government that re-fixation of pension was a “time consuming” process.
The pensioners covered under the revised scheme include 4.52 lakh new beneficiaries.
The pension scheme was revised with effect from July 1, 2019, and the arrears are being paid for the period July 2019 to June 2022. The central government implemented OROP, a decades-old demand, for defence pensioners, in November 2015 with effect from July 2014.