OROP: Ex-servicemen to meet Parrikar tonight

NEW DELHI: In a fresh bid to break the One Rank One Pension impasse, representatives of ex-servicemen will be meeting defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday night.
Defence sources said the meeting will take place in the minister's office in South Block to thrash out the differences.
READ ALSO: OROP talks remain deadlocked as veterans reject govt proposal
Bajwa seeks President's intervention
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa appealed to the President Pranab Mukherjee to use his good offices as head of the Indian state and supreme commander of the Armed Forces to get the Centre to implement OROP for the veterans of the defence services without any delay.
Bajwa said the situation was now critical as several veterans have been peacefully taking part in the relay hunger strike being organized at Jantar Mantar as part of their struggle.
READ ALSO: OROP row to end on 1965 war anniversary?
He said people of the country were highly agitated, especially after the totally insensitive attempt by the Delhi Police acting on the government's orders to remove the veterans from the scene leading to their being manhandled.
He expressed shock at the treatment meted out to the defenders of the nation saying this was utterly shameful.
The PPCC chief appealed to the President to intervene before this "insensitive, uncaring government" allowed a casualty to take place.
READ ALSO - OROP fast-unto-death: 2nd army veteran rushed to hospital
He lambasted the government for trying to take "refuge behind a smokescreen of technicalities and complications".
"In the volatile situation that prevailed on our frontiers, India and it's people could not risk such a state of affairs brought about by a vision less, blinkered, unfeeling government that had failed to care about the promises," he said.