Bajwa applauds acceptance of one rank pension, thanks Sonia Rahul

New Delhi/Chandigarh, February 17, 2014: Partap Singh Bajwa, President, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) today applauded the decision of the UPA government at the Centre to implement the ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme and expressed his gratitude to UPA Chairperson and AICC President Sonia Gandhi and AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi for the major relief given to ex-servicemen.
In a statement issued here Bajwa said that it was a long-pending demand of millions of ex-servicemen and Punjab Congress had been consistently making efforts to get the ‘one rank-one pension’ scheme approved since a large number of ex-servicemen belonged to Punjab.  He said that Finance Minister P.Chidambram was generous enough to provide Rs.500 crores in the defense budget exclusively for this purpose.
Bajwa said that he had led a deputation of ex-servicemen on Friday to meet Rahul Gandhi at Delhi where Gandhi had assured to get the long standing demand accepted.  He said that he had also strongly taken up the demand of ex-servicemen with Gandhi when he had visited Sangrur to lay the foundation stone of cancer hospital in May 2013. He said that Punjab would be a major beneficiary of the OROP rule.
He said that under the "one rank, one pension" rule, retired soldiers of the same rank and length of service will receive the same pension, regardless of when they retire. Currently, pensioners who retired before 2006 receive less pension than their counterparts, even their juniors.
Bajwa further said that previous National Democratic Alliance Government which was in office for six years had given false hopes to ex-servicemen but didn’t accept the demand despite making periodic announcements at regular intervals about the same. He said that 25 lakh retired and 14 lakh serving army men would be benefited by this decision. He said that earlier also UPA government had  made  significant improvements in pension for armed forces personnel  over and above the benefits that accrued out of implementation of the 6th Pay Commission.
PPCC president also welcomed 10 percent hike in the defense budget beside other incentives given in excise duty to manufacturing sector. Lastly Bajwa said that he was proud of having taken up the just demands of those who put their lives on the line for their countrymen and successfully got them accepted. The country and the Congress are proud of India's soldiers and will do everything possible for their welfare and that of their families.//punjab news live, punjab news online, punjab news, punjab news headlines, punjab breaking news, india news, punjab news, world news,

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