Friday 08, 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh on Thursday tried to woo the ex-servicemen voters of Uttarakhand. A substantial portion of the speech of the PM was devoted to the achievements of his government in the defence sector. He said that Uttarakhand is playing a key role in defending the country and the youth of the state are the pride of the armed forces of the country. He assured that his government is committed to the welfare of armed forces personnel and ex-servicemen. PM Modi said that the BJP government fulfilled the 40 year old demand of One Rank One Pension (OROP). Modi said that his government has constructed the National War Memorial in New Delhi and extended the benefit of the Battle Casualty Welfare fund to the personnel of Air Force and Navy.
In his speech the PM also didn’t fail to mention that the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami comes from a family of an ex serviceman.
It is pertinent to mention here that the union government had recently appointed Lt Gen (Rtd) Gurmit Singh as governor of Uttarakhand. The armed forces veterans and their families constitute an influential vote bank which can tilt the scales in the favour of any party in the assembly elections. It is said that in Uttarakhand one person from every household is said to be associated with the armed forces or para military forces.
It is estimated that there are an estimated 1.80 lakh armed forces veterans and Veer Naris (widows of armed forces personnel) in the state. Similarly the state is home to about thirty five thousand retired paramilitary forces personnel. An estimated 1.50 lakh personnel belonging to the state are serving in different wings of the armed forces of the country.
