Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Thursday rejected the Aam Aadmi Party-led government’s decision to give Rs 1 crore as compensation to the family of ex-serviceman Ram Kishen Grewal, who had committed suicide while protesting against the implementation of the One Rank One Pension scheme. The Delhi Cabinet had sent a proposal to the effect to the LG for approval. However, Baijal’s office claimed the compensation was invalid as Grewal had not died in the line of duty.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had been in endless conflict with the last LG Najeeb Jung, called the move “anti-soldier”, blaming Prime Miniter Narendra Modi for the decision. “Modiji himself doesn’t not provide good food to soldiers and when we are trying to help the family of the deceased soldier, why is he stopping us,” Kejriwal tweeted. The LG works under the Central government, a fact that underlined the power struggles in Delhi between Kejriwal and Jung, and possibly now Baijal, who had so far been on even terms with the chief minister.
Baijal had previously approved two key Delhi government proposals – on minimum wages and the salaries of guest teachers – drawing praise from the AAP.
Grewal had consumed poison on November 1, 2016, after he was allegedly denied permission to meet Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. However, Baijal said his case “does not fall within the parameters of the scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment”, though he “fully sympathised” with Grewal’s family.” He added that any possible ex-gratia payment would only have been valid had Grewal been a resident of Delhi.
In his suicide note, Grewal, had said that he was killing himself for the country’s soldiers. His son said he had called his family and informed them of his decision to take his life because “the government had failed to fulfil their demands” related to the OROP scheme.
The Defence Ministry had reinstated the OROP scheme in September 2015, more than 43 years after the formula for calculating pensions for those retiring from India’s armed forces was terminated by the Indira Gandhi government. It formally notified the OROP scheme for more than 24 lakh ex-servicemen and six lakh war widows in the country on November 8, 2015.
However, the veterans had said 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.
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