Wednesday 30 / April / 2025
Kinnaur/New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said Rs55 billion has been paid for implementing the OROP scheme, an issue that has been hanging fire for the last 40 years, even as he lauded the valour and sacrifice of the armed forces amid tension on the border with Pakistan.
Dedicating this Diwali to the armed forces personnel, he said he has "fulfilled the promise" he made to ex-servicemen on the one-rank-one-pension scheme.
Modi said the issue had been pending for "40 years" as certain people in the previous governments "did not know" about OROP, and therefore "only Rs5 billion was allocated" for the purpose.
He also said many people thought that if the scheme was not implemented, a section of "ex-servicemen would turn against the government". He made these remarks while celebrating Diwali with army and ITBP men in Sumdo in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur district.
"Spent time with our courageous @ITBP_official & Army Jawans at Sumdo, Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh. Jai Jawan! Jai Hind!," he tweeted.
The prime minister, while on his way back from Sumdo, met civilians at Himachal's Chango village, close to the Sino-Indian border.
He exchanged greetings, interacted with the people there, and offered sweets to children."Made unscheduled stop at Chango village, close to Somdu, to wish people on Diwali. Was deeply touched by the impromptu reception & their joy," Modi tweeted.
"The prime minister spent time with ITBP jawans and personnel of Dogra Scouts of army at Sumdo on border of Kinnaur and Spiti, and distributed sweets to them," an official said.
Modi also met personnel of the General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF), a branch of Border Roads Organisation (BRO), entrusted with construction and maintenance of border roads and also executing the Rohtang Tunnel project, the official said. After coming in power in 2014, the Prime Minister had celebrated his first Diwali with soldiers posted in Siachen, and in 2015, he celebrated it at the India-Pakistan border in Punjab.
On the OROP issue Modi said, "The OROP was not about just Rs 2 billion or Rs 5 billion, but Rs 100 billion... After I became the PM, and decided that I had to do (implement) it, the entire government lost sleep over it... It was not possible for the government to pay in one go, so I requested the ex-servicemen to accept it in four instalments.
"The money will reach them in four installments. Nearly, Rs55 billion has been paid as the first installment," Modi said.
He said implementation of OROP was his "dream", which has been "fulfilled".
