Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 24: The leaders of BJP and PDP Ex Service Wings today said that the BJP-PDP coalition Government has kept the pre-poll promise and decided to amend the VAT Act to bring the goods sold through CSD Canteens in J&K in the exempted list.
Talking to reporters here, today Brig (retd) Anil Gupta of BJP Ex-Servicemen Cell and Capt (Retd) Anil Gaur of PDP’s Ex-servicemen Wing informed that Finance Minister on the floor of the Assembly has made an announcement in this regard during the course of his budget speech. They complimented the coalition Government on behalf of the five lakh strong veteran community in the State.
They also hoped that the Government would favourably consider the other demands of the ex-servicemen like 15% reservation in jobs including police, raising of disaster management units and TA(ECO) units based on ex -servicemen for restoring the ecological balance in the three regions of the state and speedy settlement of revenue cases by forming veteran Grievance Redressal Cells at each district headquarters.
In this connection they also referred to the letter dated 12th February written by the Defence Minister of India to all the Chief Ministers requesting him to help the serving personnel and veterans of the Indian Armed Forces in speedy disposal of their grievances.
The two leaders requested the Government to amend the VAT Act in the current session of the Assembly itself so that the affected personnel are benefitted at the earliest. They also said that this step of the Government would also benefit the serving soldiers in the state and will contribute to raising their morale.
They also thanked NDA Government and the Defence Minister for implementing the One Rank One Pension scheme. They said the revised pension would be effective from April 1, 2014 and the arrears would be paid in four equal installments from May 1, 2015. With this 30 year old struggle of the veterans would see light of the day and bring cheers on many battle hardened faces including widows and Veer Naris.Capt BS Jasrotia, general secretary of the BJP ex-servicemen cell was also present in the press conference.
Brig Gupta also informed the media that he and Capt Gaur would be jointly meeting the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and other cabinet ministers to apprise them of the problems being faced by the ex-servicemen in the State.
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