On Vijay Diwas, Home minister promises to help ex-servicemen

Home Minister G Parameshwara on Wednesday said the State government would lend all help to ex-servicemen.

Speaking at an event organised to observe Vijay Diwas in the City, he said there had been several requests from ex-servicemen to grant them agricultural land, sites and other benefits.

“The government is willing to help them and we will consider their requests for these benefits,” he said.

The event was organised to pay tributes to those who had laid down their lives in the 1971 India-Pakistan War.

The minister also remarked that there had been a practice since the time of the Mysuru maharajas to allot land to ex-servicemen. “However, when a few governments were in power, the practice was not  followed,” he said.

Chairman of the Legislative Council D H Shankaramurthy, MLC Captain Ganesh Karnik and senior officials from the armed forces participated in the event.

Tributes offered
As part of Vijay Diwas, a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Headquarters Training Command War Memorial in the City. Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar, Senior Air Staff Officer, Headquarters Training Command, placed a wreath on behalf of the personnel of the Indian Air Force.

Local commanders of the Army and the Navy, senior serving and retired officers also placed wreaths at the War Memorial. The programme concluded after observing a two-minute silence in memory of the martyrs.