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`Welfare of war widows a national responsibility'

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 3. The Minister of State for Defence, O. Rajagopal, said today that the welfare of war widows was a national responsibility.

At a national consultation on "Gender Sensitisation of Sainik Boards," organised by the National Commission for Women (NCW), he said the Director-General (Resettlement) and the Sainik Boards needed to be more sensitised about the issue.

Agreeing with the Minister that the Sainik Boards were not functioning properly and that there was a need to recruit more women in the Sainik Boards, the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Shantonu Choudhury, said the biggest problem was "post-disbursal management."

He called upon the commanding officers to be sensitive and proper while dealing with such cases. They could even send a team of officers to stay in the widow's village until the ex-gratia amount was well invested and even keep a watch on the monthly money transactions for a few months.

The Vice-Chief also said that the Armed Forces had written to the Centre to end discrepancies in the grant of ex-gratia and suggested a uniform amount for the dependents.

Regarding compensation for the mothers of the deceased soldiers, Lt. Gen. Choudhury said this could only be done with the intervention of Parliament.

To overcome this problem, the soldiers should be encouraged to write a will.

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