Nagpur: The Army’s area office has pointed out to the state govt that Maharashtra lacks sufficient officers for veterans’ welfare. There are two lakh veterans in Maharashtra’s 33 districts, but only 17 have full-time Zilla Sainik Welfare Officers (ZSWO). “The matter was taken up with the govt during discussions on veterans’ issues,” said general-officer-in-commanding (GOC) for Maharashtra-Goa and Gujarat regions, Lt General DS Kushwah. It has been also mooted that district collectors could have separate expenditure sub-heads for veterans’ welfare, he said.
The officer was addressing a veterans’ rally organised in Nagpur on Sunday by the Uttar Maharashtra and Gujarat (UMANG) sub-area. Next of kin of the martyrs of the 1965 and 1971 wars, as well as peacekeeping operations in Sri Lanka during the 1980s and counter-insurgency deployment in Kashmir, were felicitated during the event.Each state has a Department of Sainik Welfare, a dedicated office for ex-servicemen’s welfare. Under this, there are offices in every district, headed by a ZSWO who is generally an ex-serviceman of officers rank. The department is headed by a cabinet-level minister. Shambhuraj Desai is the minister in Maharashtra. Sources said it is up to the state to issue advertisements and fill the posts of ZSWO. Earlier, GOC of UMANG, Major General NS Sohal, said that the sub-area had cleared more than 12,000 cases of veterans’ issues through the SPARSH portal, apart from over 5,000 by conventional modes. So far, arrears of more than 4.72cr were released to retired servicemen. Some of the gathered veterans recounted their memories of the Indo-Pak wars. Havaldar RK Pande of Brigade of Guards Regiment recalled watching Sholay along with Pakistani prisoners of war (POWs) a camp in Sagar. “The film was screened for four days — 3 times for Indian soldiers and once for the POWs. I watched all four shows,” he said. He also vividly recalled assaults on Pakistani troops on eastern front. “They waited till we reached barely a few metres close and suddenly opened fire. However, soon our troops overran them.”
