Ex-servicemen demanding OROP allowed to stay at Jantar Mantar

A senior police official said they had cleared the area 90 percent but allowed the protesting ex-servicemen to stay there even as top politicians trooped in to pledge their support for the ex-servicemen.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the venue and said if the Prime Minister has promised them OROP then it should be done and a date for the same should be given.

He said the technical difficulties should have been thought of before making the promise.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who also visited the venue, said the PM must announce the OROP norm from the ramparts of Red Fort tomorrow.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who is from the ruling BJP, said the assurance given by PM Modi will be fulfilled soon while slamming the Congress party for failing to honour it during their regimes since this is a demand raised since the 1970s.

"Our PM is the first to say he will bring OROP," said Rathore.

Authorities earlier tried to clear the area for security reasons ahead of the I-Day celebrations even as the ex-servicemen refused to move out.

The protesters, who had been living there for past many days in two tents on a relay hunger strike, said they would not move out till their demands were met. 

Earlier, reports said Prime Minister Narendra Modi may announce implementation of the long pending One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme on August 15 when India celebrates its 68th Independence Day.

If implemented, the scheme will benefit about three million-strong ex-servicemen and war widows in the country.

Ex-servicemen have been agitating with the demand for long.

One Rank One Pension scheme  seeks to ensure that a uniform pension is paid to defence personnel who retire at the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement.

During a Lok Sabha election rally in early 2014 Modi had said, "If Atal Bihari Vajpayee had come to power in 2004 then the One Rank One Pension problem wouldn't have come up. He would have given retired defence officials and serving personnel the means to live with dignity."

Again while visiting Army jawans in Siachen on October 23, 2014, Modi had said, "The promise of OROP has been fulfilled. We want all our defence personnel to live with dignity."

But his promise remains unfulfilled so far.