Decrated soldiers"deprived of benefits":Vet.Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Decorated soldiers"deprived of benefits:
Vet. Prabhjot Singh PLS Retd.President,IESL P&C.
Decorated soldiers ‘deprived of benefits’ :Indian Ex-Services
League demands probe.Ludhiana_ January 16.The Indian
Ex-Services League, Punjab, and Chandigarh, has sought a
high-level inquiry in the alleged scandal of not granting
land and other benefits to the decorated soldiers and their
widows.
A large number of decorated soldiers had died and
their kin had not been given any benefits as announced by
the state government from time to time.Lt Col Chanan Singh
Dhillon (retd), patron-in-chief of theleague, said that the
state government had sufficient landto allot to the decorated
soldiers but officials of the stateRevenue Department and
other babus had played a big fraud on these soldiers and their
families.
Colonel Dhillon said according to a report of the
Revenue Department published on April 29, 2002, the state
had landto the order of 1,72,428 acres available in 17 districts
of the state. About 36,127 acres were available, which were
not under any encroachment.
He further said the state Defence Advisory Committee,
which met on August 11, 2004, had found that the Revenue
Department had been acting in a pick and choose manner
for allotment of land to the decorated soldiers and their
widows.
Colonel Dhillon saidCapt Amarinder Singh had ordered
an inquiry into the scandal and directed the Defence
Department to dig out the facts and put up report regarding
the officers involved in the same. He charged that neither
the Revenue Department nor the Defence Department,
including theDirector of the Sainik Welfare Department
of the state government,acted in this regard and adopted
a dilly-dallying attitudeand the scandal remained buried
in the babudom.
According to Colonel Dhillon, when Parkash Singh Badal
took over as the Chief Minister, the matter was again taken
up with him and it was complained that the Revenue
Department wasnot cooperating and had played havoc
with the decorated soldiers.
During investigations, it was found that the Revenue
Departmenthad re-employed some of the officials, who
had retired at higher salaries. Badal refused to grant
sanction to such officers.Colonel Dhillon haddemanded
a high-level inquiry into the scam.
The state government were keen to help the decorated
soldiers and their widows but department officials had
not allowed them to help their widows and the living
decorated officers,healleged.
It is learnt that there were as many as 256 decorated
officers in the state in which 125 were alive.
Veteran Prabhjot Singh PLS Retd.
President,
Indian Ex-Services League, Punjab & Chandigarh.
Mob.098554-09128,Tele-Fax 0175-5000896.