NEW DELHI: The NDA government is committed to the welfare of military veterans, and has already disbursed Rs 6,285 crore as arrears under the ‘one rank, one pension’ ( OROP ) scheme till now, said minister of state for defence Subhash Bhamre on Saturday.“Veterans are an essential part of the armed forces family, who are the keepers of our values and culture. It’s our duty to respect and honour them as they are an unbreakable link between the present and the past,” said Bhamre, addressing the inaugural armed forces veterans’ day function at Delhi cantonment.“Our Prime Minister and defence minister are sensitive towards all your questions. We will try to address your grievances but unfortunately some elements are making wrong statements regarding defence affairs and creating myths, which is not right,” he added.Dwelling upon the different welfare measures being undertaken for ex-servicemen, the minister said the NDA government had implemented the OROP scheme , a demand of veterans that was languishing for the last 40 years, which had been notified in November 2015.The government has disbursed Rs 3,995 crore in the first instalment of arrears to 19,69,385 ex-servicemen. In the second instalment, Rs 2,291crore was disbursed to 15,54,849 veterans.In all, 20,72,457 ex-servicemen are eligible for OROP. While the payment of arrears entails a total of Rs 10,925 crore under the OROP scheme, the annual recurring expenditure will be Rs 7,489 crore.