New Delhi: Following the protest by war veterans, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday assured that his government is steadfast on the one-rank, one-pension (OROP) policy for ex-servicemen.

PM tweeted, "On OROP - the Govt is committed to OROP & there's no doubt about it."

OROP scheme is directed at guaranteeing that all retired soldiers who have the same rank and the tenure of service get the same amount of pension notwithstanding their date of retirement. Presently, all those soldiers who retired before 2006 get less pension than their equals and even their juniors.

In an interview to an English Daily, The Tribune, PM Modi said, "The previous governments don't have the right to speak about it because they did nothing when they were in power."

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar had said, "There cannot be a date specified to implement OROP. This scheme was not understood by the previous government properly. There are many fine prints and aspects that need to be considered. After taking a lot of time, I have crystallised the department...There are two-three administrative steps that are still pending."

OROP has been promised by all political parties during their election campaign but it has not been implemented so far. Groups of ex-servicemen have been conducting meetings and returning their medals to object to the non-implementation of OROP.

Over the last one year, the Modi government too has repetitively promised OROP but there are many hurdles to cross before its actual implementation.