Declare My Husband A Martyr As He Died For Everyone, Says Ex-Serviceman's Wife

Huddled in the veranda of her house, Kitaab Kaur, the widow of Ram Kishan Grewal – the ex-serviceman, who committed suicide in Delhi on Wednesday over the One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue – is unable to come to the terms that her husband was no more.

“I cannot believe that he has left us. He was a brave soldier. He cannot commit suicide for a cause he strongly and tirelessly fought for,” she told Indiatimes.

BCCL

The wailing wife considers herself guilty of not having been at home when Grewal called her on Tuesday night allegedly before consuming poison.

“I am among one of most unfortunate women who could not hear her husband last time. He called one of my sons and asked him to let him talk to me. But I was not at home,” she said while crying inconsolably.

The widow demanded that her husband be considered as martyr as he did not die for himself; rather he died for the cause.

“My husband has not sacrificed his life for himself but for the country and I want that to be recognised. Ex-servicemen should be treated with respect; they should be considered martyrs,” she added.

BCCL

The last rites of Grewal, who served the Army for over 37 years, were performed today at his village – Bamla in Haryana’s Bhiwani district. Asked about the demand, his son Pradeep said what all his father wanted was an increment of just Rs 5,000 in pension after having served the Territorial Army for about six years and the Defence Security Corps (DSC) for 24 years.

“He was drawing a pension of Rs 24,999 per month after retiring from the DSC in 2004. Had OROP been implemented in full, he would have been entitled to Rs 30,000 a month,” he said. Grewal wanted correct implementation of of the OROP and his pension to be increased according to the sixth and seventh pay commissions along with arrears due.

The government said that the deceased ex-serviceman's OROP had not been held back but the delay in receiving the revised pension was due to problems in calculation at his bank's end.

PTI

What is OROP?

OROP, which implies same pension for same rank, for same length of service, irrespective of the date of retirement, is a longstanding demand of the Indian armed forces and veterans.

The 10-member parliamentary panel set to look into the issue in 2011 explained OROP as a scheme that seeks to bridge the gap between the rates of pension payable to current pensioners and past pensioners.

It means, the armed forces personnel should get the benefit of changes in salary even after their retirement. Thus, if an officer retires as a Major, his salary level will be linked to that of a Major who retires 10 years after he does.

BCCL

On September 5, 2015, the central government decided to implement the scheme, and media reports had indicated that more than two-thirds of ex-servicemen had been paid their OROP arrears by March this year. 

The total amount disbursed under OROP by March 17, 2016, was Rs 2,293 crore.

But ex-servicemen are still protesting over it claiming that the scheme has “anomalies” in time period for revision, fixing pensions at top of the scale, date of implementation and base year.