Chandigarh, November 2
In a bold initiative towards mitigating the grievances of military veterans, the govt has constituted a Standing Committee on Welfare of Ex-Servicemen. The committee would be chaired by the Minister of State for Defence and would be a forum for all the stake holders to discuss issues concerning them.
The committee, which came into being in October, has been set up on the lines similar to the Standing Committee on Voluntary Agencies (SCOVA) that functions under the aegis of the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, which takes up matters concerning the welfare of retired civilian government employees.
The committee on welfare for ex-servicemen is expected to meet at least once in a quarter, and would have official members, including the Secretary, Dept of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, CGDA, Director General Resettlement, Managing Director Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme and the Secretary, Kendriya Sainik Board.
Non-official members in the committee would include representatives of various ex-servicemen’s organisation, besides having provisions for special invitees and officials from the Veterans’ Cells of the three services.
Veterans claim that the major impediment in resolution and rationalisation of problems related to military veterans was that the stakeholders did not have a say in decision-making process and that senior bureaucrats and the political executive were isolated and insulated from the voice of the veteran community.
Welcoming the establishment of the committee, ex-servicemen said that issue concerning them would now be discussed openly and any anomalies and faulty inputs would be resolved before any policy is formulated, not only saving a lot of time and trouble later but also preventing protracted litigation.
Ex-servicemen have often expressed their unhappiness over the functioning of the Department of Ex-servicemen’s Welfare in the Ministry of Defence, pointing out that it is staffed entirely by civilians without any representation from the veterans, making it insensitive towards their requirements and grievances.
In the last SCOVA meeting held in September, chaided by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr Jitendra Singh, the issue of redressal of ex-servicemen’s grievances had been strongly raised by veterans, including Col Hari Handa, the President of Disabled War Veterans, India (DIWAVE).
MoS Defence to chair committee
- The standing committee on welfare for ex-servicemen is would be chaired by the Minister of State for Defence and would be a forum for all the stakeholders to discuss issues concerning them.
- It would have official members, including the Secretary, Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, Controller General of Defence Accounts, Director General Resettlement, Managing Director Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme and the Secretary, Kendriya Sainik Board.
- Non-official members would include representatives of various ex-servicemen’s organization
(Source-The Tribune News)
Officers get their request for corrigundum ppos processed directly while ors have to route it through records which is time consuming,a time frame should be set for all transactions at all
ReplyDeletelevels.
official and unofficial member inluded on panel but the munsi stand behind the unofficial they will work as a speed breaker the government new game started. let us see who will hit the goal. start from today onward best wishes to all exserviceman because i am expbor
ReplyDeleteduring service our boss is guru. so ball in your hand and you are a opener representative for exserviceman. day will come when all wickets falls. so try to clean bold all batsman and make a victory for exserviceman. all exserviceman pray from god for your victory. during service and after service because we all are a uniform wearer from sepoy to general
ReplyDeleteIdas officers should be posted at records with power to issue ppos,they could do the back office work later via wan computer.This will save one year from the 15 months it takes to issue a corr ppo
ReplyDelete