QUESTIONS TO THE GOVERNORS by Brig Harwant singh

Dear Sir ,
A letter for publication in your most Esteemed Paper is attached. (Appended below). Since time is extremely short before the impending meeting with HE the Governor of Punjab, you are requested to publish the same at the earliest to enable HE to prepare for the questions please. Short reaction time given is deeply regretted.
With Warm Regards,
Yours' Sincerely,
Brig Harwant Singh (Retd)

QUESTIONS TO THE GOVERNORS
While forthcoming meeting of prominent Ex-Servicemen on 10 Sep, by Gen (Retd) SF Rodrigues, the Governor of Punjab, who is a former Army Chief, to discuss matters related to their welfare is welcome, they are likely to ask some uncomfortable questions to His Excellency. Apart from the routine neglect of the Ex-Servicemen, many injustices have been heaped upon them by the govt .e.g. The 4th Pay Commission denied ‘Rank Pay’ to affected persons, forcing one Major Danapalam to get redress from the court but the govt did not provide such redressal to others similarly placed, contrary to the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling which stated that if redressal was given to one person, the concerned department was expected to provide the same to all other similarly placed. When the aforementioned case became public, what efforts did the retired army chief as governor make to get redressal to the thousands of affected Ex-Servicemen? Again, glaring and massive injustice has been done to the Ex-Servicemen by the 6th Pay Commission forcing them to resort to agitation, including depositing their most prized and dearest asset, their medals with the President of India. What action did the former Army chief take to get them justice? Why the Department of Ex-Servicemen’s Welfare is NOT headed by a military officer as is the case in most democracies but by a bureaucrat? Why the National Commission for Ex-Servicemen is NOT composed of members of the ‘User Group’ as is the case with commissions on ‘Women’, ‘Minorities’, ‘SC/BC’ and similar other such categories?
All Governors, specially the former soldiers, are advised that holding ritualistic meeting and platitudes would NOT do. They MUST do some thing concrete towards the Ex-Servicemen, who gave their yesterday for Nation’s tomorrow.
BRIG HARWANT SINGH(Retd)
08 Sep 2009
Member Rajyia Sainik Board, Punjab
Member Steering Committee Indian Ex-Servicemen’s Movement