Tribune News Service
Jammu, November 13
Former Emergency Commission (EC) officers of the Army today demanded health scheme benefits as provided to other ranks of the armed forces.
Hundreds of Emergency Commission officers who joined the Army during the 1962 and 1971 wars from J&K are not covered under regular schemes of the Army.
Former Captain Sagar Chand Sharma alleged that the Ministry of Defence had been ignoring the demands of non-pensioner officers and they had been denied benefits of the health scheme.
“We fought in 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars along with other regular officers, but after the wars ended the then Congress government showed us the door from the Army without announcing any rehabilitation plan. Since then thousands of such officers have been suffering despite the fact that they fought for the nation,” said former Captain Sagar Chand.
The former Army officer claimed that during 1970s 7,000 Emergency Commission officers were discharged from the Army without any benefit and now most of them are very old and need medical help, but the Army had turned a blind eye towards them.