In poll-bound Gujarat, the state government has announced an astronomical rise in compensation given to kin of martyred soldiers.
The compensation given to the wife or family of a soldier who has died in the line of duty has been increased from the current ₹1 lakh to ₹1 crore, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said.
The announcement came hours after 500 ex-servicemen from Gujarat gathered in Gandhinagar in the morning to agitate for their long-pending demands, including higher compensation for families of the martyred soldiers.
Further, the Gujarat government also informed the monthly compensation of ₹1,000 currently given to the martyred soldier’s widow has been increased to ₹5,000. Similarly, each child of a martyr, with a maximum of two children, would now get monthly assistance of ₹5,000 instead of ₹500 till they finish their studies or turn 25 years of age. The state government currently pays ₹50,000 as one-time compensation and monthly assistance of ₹500 to each parent of an unmarried martyr. Now, parents would get ₹5 lakh as one-time compensation and ₹5,000 as monthly assistance each of them.
Additionally, the cash prize for the recipient of Param Vir Chakra, the highest military award, has been hiked from ₹22,500 to ₹1 crore, while an Ashok Chakra awardee will get ₹1 crore from the state government instead of ₹20,000.
After the BJP-rule government announced the compensation, the Aam Aadmi Party took a jibe against them. The AAP, which is actively campaigning in the state for the Gujarat polls, said the state government’s move came days after he made a similar promise to the protesting ex-servicemen during his visit to the state two months back. Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the Gujarat government cover the martyred policemen as he had done in Delhi.
He also demanded the Gujarat government pay compensation to kin of soldiers from the state martyred in the last five years “to prove to the public that the government is genuinely willing to do so and not just because the Assembly elections are around the corner”. “If the state government fails to do so, we will start paying after forming a government,” Kejriwal said.
Meanwhile, though the new compensation of ₹1 crore is in line with the demands of ex-servicemen, they want the government to accept all their 14 demands and issue a Government Resolution (GR). “We are not aware of such an announcement by the government. We will believe it only when a minister approaches us and tells us what exactly the government has decided on our demands. We want the government to issue a GR. We will not stop our agitation until all our demands are met,” said Jitendra Nimavat, president of Gujarat’s Ex-Armymen Union.
Former soldiers of Gujarat have been holding protests at regular intervals to get the government to accept their long-pending demands. They had held a rally from Ahmednagar to Gandhinagar in June. Other major demands include pension for the family, government job to one member of the family of each martyr, and strict implementation of reservations in government jobs from class 1 to 4 for retired Army personnel. The agitators also want a martyrs’ memorial in Gandhinagar, agricultural land for retired army men as per rules, priority while issuing or renewing a gun licence, and removal of contract system in jobs offered to former army personnel. The ex-servicemen have also demanded a full waiver of professional tax, the quota for their children in higher education, and priority for their work in government offices.
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