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Hooda wants national Defence university

Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday urged the Centre to set up a national Defence university and a military station of the size of a brigade in Rewari and open a second Sainik School in southern Haryana, preferably in Rewari district.

Mr.Hooda was speaking at a meeting of the Kendriya Sainik Board presided over by Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.

An official spokesman said here that Mr.Hooda also urged Mr. Mukherjee to get a military school constructed at Matenhale in Jhajjar district for which the foundation stone was laid in 2003 by the then Union Defence Minister.

The Chief Minister announced that an ecological task force of ex-servicemen would be raised in the State. He also sought Central assistance to add to the incentives being already given for the welfare of defence personnel and their dependents. He claimed that his regime was extra sensitive to their needs and demands. Apart from spending Rs. 16 crores during the last financial year out of the State Government's budget, he said, Rs. 1 crore was spent out of the Haryana Amalgamated Fund, Rs. 50 lakhs from the Haryana Defence Security Relief Fund and Rs. 1.02 crore out of the Chief Minister's War Heroes Relief Fund to implement welfare schemes.

Disclosing that the State Government's stand was that the interests of the families of the ex-servicemen would be best served by providing them quality education, he said that the focus was not only on the amount of stipends but providing them pre-examination coaching for entrance examinations to NDA, CET and Pre-medical Test.

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