ARYANA FM REACTS TO FORMER PUNJAB CM’S LETTER TO UNION DEFENCE MINISTER, SEEKING ‘UNDILUTED’ OROP SCHEME

HANDIGARH: Reacting sharply to former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s letter to the Union defence minister demanding “undiluted” one rank, one pension (OROP) scheme, Haryana finance minister Capt Abhimanyu on Friday said that it would have been better had the former chief minister apologised on behalf of the Congress which “kept the ex-servicemen deprived of their rightful dues of OROP for over 43 years.”
Interacting with newspersons, Capt Abhimanyu hailed the BJP government’s decision on OROP as historical, which, he held, ended the injustice done to exservicemen under the Congress rule since 1972.
“There would be an additional annual expenditure of `7,500 crore on giving OROP to the 30 lakh families of ex-servicemen in the country. However, they would have got over `3.5 lakh crore in the past 43 years, had the Congress government implemented the OROP,” he added.esponding to queries on the ongoing protests by ex-servicemen against the OROP, Capt Abhimanyu held that they should instead take up all their issues with the judicial commission formed for the purpose. “There can be personal or political reasons behind such protests,” he said.
Regarding his meeting with Union minister of state for defence, Rao Inderjit Singh here on Friday, he said that they discussed the possibilities of setting up an industry of defence equipment in Haryana, besides other issues. On reports pertaining to his possible appointment as the deputy chief minister in Haryana, he refused to comment and said he found these as “figment of someone’s imagination”.