Goa polls: Modi govt curtailing benefits of soldiers, compromising national security, says Cong leader

Karnataka Congress leader DK Shiva Kumar on Friday said the Narendra Modi government had curtailed the benefits of soldiers and had also failed to fill over 1.22 lakh vacant defence posts.

The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president was campaigning for his party in the Goa Assembly polls scheduled for February 14.

”The Modi government is compromising national security as around 1,22,555 posts are vacant in defence areas. It has also deprived 30 lakh ex-servicemen from getting benefits of ‘One Rank One Pension’. While Congress government always worked in the interest of our soldiers, the BJP is playing politics with the nation’s security,” he alleged.

The KPCC chief said the Congress-led UPA government had, on February 17, 2014, approved OROP effective from April 1 that year, but the BJP government rejected it on November 7, 2015 with an order that laid down that military personnel who took voluntary retirement after July 1, 2014 will not get One Rank One Pension. The Modi government also rejected the demand to revise the pension of 30 lakh soldiers every year and kept this time period at five years. he claimed.

The budget for the Ex-Servicemen Health Scheme (ECHS) facility was cut by Rs 1,990 crore this year when compared to last year, and the Modi government had also imposed GST on Canteen Stores Department (CSD) purchases, the Congress leader said.

”The Modi government imposed a tax on the ‘disability pension’ of soldiers. This is shameful. The Congress has always worked in the interest of ex-servicemen, giving them work in petrol pumps, gas agencies, coal shipments, transport, etc post retirement,” he said.

These types of work have ended now as the Modi government was privatizing such firms and agencies, which was leading to loss of reservation for several segments of society, he alleged.