Chandigarh Administration Enhances Welfare Assistance for Ex-Servicemen and War Widows

The Voice of Chandigarh:

The Annual Meeting of the Managing Committee for the Special Fund for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Ex-Servicemen was held under the Chairmanship of H. Rajesh Prasad, IAS, Chief Secretary, U.T. Chandigarh, at the New Secretariat Building, Sector-9, Chandigarh.

Also present in the meeting were Mandip Singh Brar, IAS, Home Secretary, Chandigarh and Nishant Kumar Yadav, IAS, Deputy Commissioner-cum-President, Zila Sainik Board. Air Marshal Sukhchain Singh, AVSM, VSM (Retd.), Brig. Gurgopat Singh (Retd.) and Lt. Col. T.S. Tomar attended the meeting as nominees of the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare.

Col. H.S. Ghuman, Zila Sainik Welfare Officer, briefed the Committee on the progress made during the past one year on various welfare initiatives for Ex-Servicemen of Chandigarh.

The Managing Committee, under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, approved enhancement in the rates of the following welfare schemes:

• Increase in the rate of financial assistance to Ex-Servicemen (JCOs/OR) retired/released without pension, who are above 65 years of age and living in penury, from ₹5,000/- to ₹8,000/-.
• Increase in the rate of financial assistance to widows whose husbands died in harness up to the rank of Subedar Major or equivalent in the Indian Navy and Air Force, from ₹1,000/- to ₹2,000/-.
• Increase in the annual grant from the Chandigarh Administration for augmentation of the Fund from ₹5,50,000/- (Rupees Five Lakh Fifty Thousand only) to ₹10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakh only).