Government may consider OROP for premature retirees: Manohar Parrikar

New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said the grant of `One Rank One Pension` to those who took premature retirement from the armed forces could be considered with certain conditions.

"We want to differentiate between voluntary retirement for better prospects and premature retirement in the interest of the Army," Parrikar said in response to a question on the demand by ex-servicemen to include early retirees in the OROP scheme.

"...need to differentiate who is retiring for his own benefit and who is retiring for the nation`s benefit," he said in an interview to Karan Thapar on India Today TV.

He said the issue will be looked into by the one-man judicial committee formed on the matter.

On equalisation of pensions, another contentious issue between the government and armed force veterans, Parrikar said the committee can look into this as well if they wanted, adding that "feasibility" was the main issue.

The minister said the incremental value of pensions in case of equalisation will be "fractional".

"The sum is small," he said, "whether it is feasible to do it every year will be referred to the committee."

"It took me two months to get this table (of pensions under OROP) out after putting all my department on work," the minister said.

On "discrimination" against the armed forces vis-a-vis the 7th pay commission report, Parrikar said he will wait for the whole analysis of the report.

"All the legitimate concerns of the armed force will be addressed," he assured.