New Delhi: At a time when the central government is giving much more attention to India's defence sector, a group of ex-servicemen from Indian Army on Thursday have demanded reservation for the retired army personnel from local bodies to Parliament.
The army men have already written letters to President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh among others.
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The army men have also written letters to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in this connection.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Major (Retired) TC Rao, convenor of martyrs' family welfare foundation said that the army personnel sacrifice their life to protect the country.
"We want that even after retirement, we should be given priority and a chance to serve the society," said Rao.
He said that as per Article 334 of the Constitution, the constituencies, which have more than 30 per cent votes of SC and ST, have been declared reserved for SC/ST, "then why not the constituencies having more than 30 per cent votes of defence personnel both serving and retired be reserved for ex-servicemen.
"The ex-servicemen community is a special class and deserve to be treated separately by enacting special provision and giving representation in all elected bodies as being done in other countries," said Rao.
Rao informed that Delhi cantonment Assembly constituency has more than 50 per cent votes of defence personnel, and this needs to be looked into.
Besides this, he said that 62 cantonment in India has more than 30 per cent voters from defence forces.
In their letter written to the President, Prime Minister, Defence Minister, the army veteran suggested reserving all 62 cantonment constituencies all over India for ex-servicemen for proper representation in State Assemblies.
They have also suggested nominating at least two ex-servicemen to the Lok Sabha in place of Anglo Indian.
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The army veteran also hailed the creation of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
"We welcome Government's decision of creating CDS, it was an issue pending for last 25 year's..." said Rao.
