Ahead of the 2014 lok Sabha polls, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday went on to woo Army personnel, ex-servicemen by assuring to take up the matter of ‘One Rank One Pension’ with the Centre, besides announcing bonanza for them.
Championing the cause of millions of serving defence personnel and veterans, the Chief Minister urged the Centre to immediately concede to the long-pending demand of 'One Rank One Pension' so that they could lead a comfortable life after retirement.
He added that the State Government would soon launch a special drive to fill backlog of vacancies reserved for ex-servicemen in various departments, boards and corporations. Announcing measures for financial relief, Badal said that the loan extended to war widows for construction of houses would be increased from existing Rs five lakh to Rs 10 lakh besides enhancing war jagir from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per month.
He also announced to waive off the property tax on the house property owned by serving Army personnel and ex-servicemen. Badal added that a special court would also be set up at Jalandhar for quick dispensation of justice to serving personnel and ex-servicemen, and two police stations would be opened in Jalandhar and Amritsar to be directly supervised by an officer not below the rank of SP.
Badal’s attempt to woo this section came during the foundation stone laying ceremony of the museum-cum-memorial dedicated to the war heroes on Wednesday. The ceremony was attended by several dignitaries of the armed forces.
Acceding to another demand of the ex-servicemen, the Chief Minister also announced to immediately slash the VAT charged on the CSD items from 6.5 to four per cent. Badal also announced to start a toll free number in the office of Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) at Chandigarh to enable the serving and veteran army personnel to get all their cases resolved related to revenue matters especially the eviction of houses.
Highly enthused with the superb performance and success of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Academy at Mohali, Badal also announced to establish another academy namely Mai Bhago Armed Forces Preparatory Institute for girls to enable them to be selected in Armed Forces. Cheering up the young cadets, Badal also announced to hike refreshment charges of the NCC Cadets from Rs six to Rs 25 and diet charges during the camps from Rs 75 to Rs 95.
Echoing for another genuine demand of recruitment of Punjabis in the Armed forces, he asked the Centre to reverse its criteria of male population ratio in the selection process, so that the states like Punjab having just 2.5 per cent of the country's total population could secure jobs in the Defence Services keeping in view state's rich legacy of gallantry in Indian Armed Forces since time immemorial.
Badal, addressing a gathering after laying foundation stone of Punjab State War Heroes Memorial and Museum, also asked the Centre to bestow country’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, on Air Force Marshal Arjan Singh for his outstanding contribution. He said that the outstanding services rendered by Arjan made him eligible for 'Bharat Ratna' in the Defence category, which was so far given to eminent civilians from different walks of life.
The construction of world-class memorial-cum-museum over an area of seven acres on Amritsar-Attari road at a cost of Rs 100 crore was a tribute to the valour and zeal of the armed forces to serve their motherland, he said. General (Retd) JJ Singh said that this memorial would give an impetus to perpetuate the rich legacy of defence personnel right from the rank of soldier to General, besides propelling a movement to set up such a memorial at the national level.