Chandigarh: Once a frontrunner in providing for soldiers hailing from the state, Punjab apparently doesn’t have the money to look after those who shed their blood in the line of duty. No budgetary allocations under the planned outlay have been made this fiscal for a large number of schemes that had been launched for ex-servicemen, war widows, disabled soldiers and their dependants.
The drastic cut in funds comes in the wake of a similar situation last year when the approved financial outlay at the start of the year was not only significantly reduced later but funds under several heads were simply not released.
This is despite the fact that the state government had recently hiked several allowances and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had promised veterans that in public forums their interests and welfare would be given due care. While expenditure under the planned outlay has been slashed, some recurring expenditures under the non-planned outlay, too, have taken a hit. Prominent among them is the monthly allowances being paid to gallantry award recipients.
Sources said while no such allowances have been paid for the last quarter so far, there are cases where the payments have been outstanding for several months, with funds for such allowances and other grants and benefits being released piecemeal by the state government.
Under the budgetary provisions, Rs 20 lakh have been allocated for providing Rs 1 lakh incentive to those from the state getting a commission in the services.
Last year, Rs 2.5 crore were approved under this head, which was revised to Rs 1.78 crore, though only Rs 1.18 crore were actually spent.
Sources said the allocation implies that only 20 persons would get the incentive this year, even though there are around 270 cases pending for payment. The cut for this incentive comes at a time when intake into the services from Punjab, both for officers as well as the rank and file is at its lowest.
Five important heads under the planned outlay — financial assistance to gallantry awardees, war widows and scholarship to their children, financial assistance to parents of martyrs, provision of monetary grant in lieu of plots for widows of martyrs, grant-in-aid to Paraplegic Rehabilitation Center (PRC), Mohali and grant-in-aid to Sainik School, Kapurthala (SSK) — have not been allocated funds.
Last year, Rs 2 crore was approved for SSK, which was revised to Rs 75 lakh, while Rs 13 lakh was approved for PRC. But no funds were released for either of the two. Similarly, Rs 40 lakh approved for providing financial assistance to gallantry awardees and war widows was reduced to Rs 10 lakh, but nothing came through.
This year, the government has approved an outlay of Rs 1.5 crore for undertaking training schemes for wards of ex-servicemen for entry into the armed forces and paramilitary forces. Last year, Rs 4 crore had been approved, which was revised down to Rs 1.75 crore, with Rs 1.12 crore being finally spent.
via The Tribune, Chandigarh, India
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