Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS) The Indian Army will observe 2011 as the ‘Year of the Disabled Soldier’ to honour its soldiers who suffered injuries or were disabled in operations, its chief General V.K. Singh said here Saturday.”We have been giving great respect to our martyred soldiers and the time has come to give due honour to our soldiers who have been disabled in operations,” Singh said at the 63rd Army Day parade here.

He said the government had sanctioned Rs.1 crore for providing rehabilitation, training and basic amenities to disabled soldiers this year. A grant of Rs.25,000 will be awarded to widows of soldiers and a monthly sum of Rs.400 would be given for education of their children. A sum of Rs.20,000 will be given to wheelchair-bound soldiers.

On counter-insurgency operations, Singh said: “Our units have been successful in maintaining peace and security in both Jammu and Kashmir and northeast. We are also providing training to the police forces in the northeast to enhance their capability to carry out internal security duties on their own.”

Commending the Indian troops working under the UN flag in peace-keeping missions, Singh noted that India had the third largest contingent among troop contributing nations and that he was proud of the soldiers in Blue Berets (UN peacekeepers) for doing “a splendid job”.

He said troops deployed in high altitude areas of over 12,000 feet would get special rations and an attempt was being made to provide the same quantity of rations to jawans and officers.

The government had announced improvement in quality and quantity of rations to the troops in high altitude areas soon after the Comptroller and Auditor General had criticised it over rotten supplies.