Pension, healthcare top the list of expectations of Pune veterans

Brigadier Ajit Apte (Retired), a veteran of the Regiment of Artillery of the Indian Army said, “There have been significant efforts by the current government till now towards OROP and bringing in modernisation in various schemes for the benefit of the Armed forces veterans. One of the key expectations from the next government is to help veterans from PBOR (Personnel Below Officer Ranks) get better services in the delivery of pension and healthcare, especially in rural areas.”

The government decided to implement OROP for Defence Forces Personnel and family pensioners and issued a policy letter in November 2015 for revision of pension which said that pensions would be updated every five years. Around Rs 57,000 crore has been spent in total and Rs 7,123 crore per year in eight years for the implementation of OROP, according to the official data from 2023.

Subedar VB Kale (Retd) said, “While OROP was a major step, there are some critical anomalies in it. First of all, there is a lack of transparency about the clubbing of personnel of same ranks and particular years of service. There have been a lot of improvements in the services of the ECHS but the number of empanelled hospitals needs to be increased, especially in the semi-urban and rural areas.” ECHS provides healthcare benefits to retired armed forces personnel and their dependents where the treatments are financed by the government.
Two veterans and the widow of a veteran told the Indian Express that the SPARSH system has several accessibility issues. Introduced in October 2020, SPARSH is a centralised mechanism for sanction, claim and disbursement of pensions of Army, Navy, Air Force and Defence civilians. It provides facilities for digital pensioner identification, verification and grievance redressals.

Lt Gen DB Shekatkar (Retd) who led the Committee of Experts on Defence Reforms formed by the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar back in 2016, said, “The next government must completely fulfil the promises that were made to the defence veterans back in 2014. In the OROP, more needs to be done to bridge the gaps and anomalies further. The SPARSH system for pension sanction and disbursement was formed to bring the entire pension sanction and disbursal mechanism under one overarching structure. There are still many issues related to accessibility, technical glitches and delays. There needs to be a thorough review of the mechanism on both policy and technicality front. Veterans and their families are a big vote bank and it is important that the next government brings these issues on its priority list.”

A retired Warrant Officer from the IAF said, “Armed forces organise veterans’ rallies for grievance redressal and post retirement training, even holding job fairs for veterans. These initiatives can be conducted in a more structured manner with veterans living in rural areas.”