Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said that the one lakh ex-servicemen who have yet to receive revised pension under the One Rank One Pension scheme will get their dues within two months. The Union minister blamed “technical difficulty or documentation problems” for the delay, PTI reported.

Parrikar made the statement in Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir where he was attending a ceremony to pay homage to soldiers who were killed during an offensive by the Pakistani Army in 1947. "We did it. Every year Rs 7,500 crore [will be incurred] and Rs 11,000 crore arrears have been paid. There has been 23% to 24% average increase in pension," Parrikar said. He reminded the Army veterans present there that the OROP scheme had not been implemented for 43 years before the National Democratic Alliance government took it up.

He also assured the former servicemen that their grievances would be resolved soon. Parrikar promised to look into problems related to the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme after interacting with the Army veterans. The defence minister's promises and assurances come two days after a former soldier of the Indian Army committed suicide because of the delay in the implementation of the OROP scheme. Ram Kishan Grewal consumed poison at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on October 1, where he had been protesting against the government allegedly going back on its word to carry out the proposal.

The ministry had reinstated the OROP scheme in September 2015, and had formally notified it for more than 24 lakh ex-servicemen and six lakh war widows in the country on November 8, 2015. However, Army veterans had said that the government's version had "seven serious shortcomings", which would nullify the definition of scheme. Ex-service personnel have held several major protests and hunger strikes demanding that their recommendations be included.