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NDA for one-rank, one-pension

NEW DELHI: BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday criticised the United Progressive Alliance government’s “neglect” of ex-servicemen’s demand of “one-rank-one pension” even after they returned to the government their most precious life possession – medals, which they earned while serving the country.

In a statement, he said the BJP fully supported their demand, which include resettlement of veterans, formation of a separate commission for the ex-servicemen, compensation for war-disabled and early retirement.

He assured them that the party would consider the issue seriously by including their demand of “one-rank-one pension” in the NDA manifesto and ensure a satisfactory solution was found at the earliest after coming to power at the Centre.

With the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendation of increasing the salaries of the armed forces every 10 years, the gap between the pensions received by those who retired before the implementation of the respective commissions had widened and it would further complicate the situation in the future.

“It is the prime responsibility and duty of the government in power to sincerely consider the problems faced by ex-servicemen, as every serving soldier today will be an ex-servicemen tomorrow,” he said.

BJP spokesman and MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy criticised the Centre for allowing the Delhi International Airport Limited to raise the gap funding, to the extent of Rs.1800 crore, by imposing Air Development Fee on domestic and international passengers leaving Delhi from March 1.

In a statement, he said this was yet another regressive step to burden the air traveller, where Delhi accounted for over 40 per cent of the air traffic. While the objective to have a public-private partnership model was to create a world class terminal with professional management and roping large investments which the government could not afford earlier.

“Here we have a situation where the government, instead of infusing the shortfall through its own guarantees and the promised sourcing from the infrastructure development fund, has preferred to burden the passenger,” he said.

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