Punjab to set up memorial for war heroes

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced to set up a state of art memorial for war heroes at Amritsar.
A concept committee will soon be constituted for the purpose, Badal announced during Triennial National Convention-cum-Reunion (TNC) organised by the War Decorated India (WDI) here.
The Chief Minister was addressing a galaxy of war decorated heroes, veer naris and next of kin of posthumous awardees of the country belonging to all the three defence services and para military forces.
"The SAD-BJP government was fully committed for the welfare of the serving defence personnel and ex-servicemen," Badal said.
"I believe that the persons who had rendered exemplary services and even sacrificed their lives to safeguard the interest of the nation must be responded back by the government in a better way," he said.

"It is our duty to take care of our veterans and veer naris, especially our soldiers who had been honoured with the highest gallantry awards," he said.

The upcoming war memorial will be a tribute to the brave sons of the soil for their unmatched valour in different battles from 1948 to 1999 in Kargil, said Badal.
"I have personally asked the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air force to provide vital inputs in this regard," he said.
At present our government's welfare plans are working for about three lakh ex-servicemen/widows and approximately 60 lakh soldiers of all the three wings of Armed forces, the chief minister said.

The state government has taken many path breaking initiatives in this direction like making budgetary provisions of Rs 24 crore in the current fiscal year, he said.
The Chief Minister also announced that state government would soon made adequate enhancement in the allowances for gallantry awardees.