Hike in relief for defence personnel killed in action

NEW DELHI, NOV 15: Government today decided to enhance the compensation to the next of kin of all armed forces personnel killed in action...

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NEW DELHI, NOV 15: Government today decided to enhance the compensation to the next of kin of all armed forces personnel killed in action from Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs ten lakh, bringing it at par with that paid to Kargil martyrs.

This was decided at the second meeting of the Chief Ministers’ committee, set up by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and headed by Defence Minister George Fernandes, here, a Defence Ministry spokesman announced.

A corpus of Rs 280 crore would be created for this purpose, ministry sources said. The rate of compensation paid to armed forces personnel killed in action since August 1997 but not linked with Operation Vijay in Kargil was Rs 7.5 lakh. Prior to this, it was Rs 2 lakh and was raised by the then defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

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The next of kin of those killed in the Kargil operations were compensated to the tune of Rs ten lakh. Today’s meeting also decided to submit a proposal to the National Defence Fund for giving compensation of Rs one lakh to all armed forcespersonnel killed since 1947 till April 30 this year, before Operation Vijay started, the spokesman said.

As many as 16,451 personnel were killed and 32,408 wounded in action since 1947, including during the two wars India fought with Pakistan and one with China.

It was also decided in the meeting, attended by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, that in case of any dispute regarding a person killed in action, the Defence Ministry would be the final authority, the spokesman said.