Blaming the bureaucracy for undue delay in granting 'one rank one pension' to country's 30 lakh ex-servicemen, Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh has sought urgent attention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the issue.
In a letter to the PM, Capt Amarinder wondered whether it was the bureaucracy or the parliament that was running the country. "I am intrigued over such a situation where the bureaucracy has been trying to overrule parliament. Is it the bureaucracy that is running this country or Parliament?" he asked.
He said, it was strange that despite the decision about OROP having been approved by the Parliament, no headway has been made so far as the vested interests in the bureaucracy are trying to scuttle it.
The former chief minister wondered despite both the UPA and NDA in favour of the decision it was still not being implemented.
He pointed out, it was the previous UPA government which approved the OROP. "The then finance minister P Chidambaram allocated Rs 500 crore for this purpose in his last budget as the exact figures had not been known at that time", he said, adding "the finance minister Arun Jaitely also approved about Rs 1000 crore for this purpose in this year's budget".
The Congress leader also said that since then the total amount required for the implementation of the scheme has been worked out to be about Rs 9500 crores, which is a pittance as compared to the expenditure incurred on other schemes like Food Security or MGNREGA which cost lakhs of crores of rupees.
"Despite that the ex-serviceman have not been able to get the benefit just because the bureaucracy do not want to pass on this benefit to them", he regretted.
The Congress leader also said that since then the total amount required for the implementation of the scheme has been worked out to be about Rs 9500 crores, which is a pittance as compared to the expenditure incurred on other schemes like Food Security or MGNREGA which cost lakhs of crores of rupees.
"Despite that the ex-serviceman have not been able to get the benefit just because the bureaucracy do not want to pass on this benefit to them", he regretted.
He said, he was surprised that the matter has been put on the back-burner for an amount of Rs 9500 crores.
"Should this amount really matter for a country like India and that too when it concerns our 30 lakhs ex-servicemen dedicated their life to the country having served the nation in peace and war", he asked.