Stand up and salute defence personnel: Badal to DCs, SSPs

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 23

Asking Deputy Commissioners and Senior Superintendents of Police in the state to accord due recognition and respect to defence personnel and veterans, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today directed them to stand up and salute them whenever they visited their offices.

Addressing a vast gathering of ex-servicemen and civilian dignitaries after inaugurating the Punjab State War Heroes’ Memorial and Museum here, he said the administration should never be complacent on this account as defence personnel and ex-servicemen constituted one of the most revered sections of society. He also announced a tele-helpline at the Secretariat to redress grievances of ex-servicemen.

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Patting the Narendra Modi government and the Army for the cross-LoC surgical strikes by terming these the “right decision at the right time”, Badal said a country without a strong and effective military was a hollow nation. 

“History has shown that countries that have had a good military leadership have always been strong. Alexander the Great and Maharaja Ranjit Singh are examples of this,” he said.

Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Union Minister Vijay Sampala also complimented the government for the surgical strikes. Sukhbir said the intake into the armed forces from Punjab, which had witnessed a decline, had picked up. “Only four cadets from Punjab had joined the National Defence Academy five years ago. The figure is now 20,” he said.

Sukhbir said contrary to perception, there was no mass drug abuse by the youth in the state. “Medical tests at an Army rally revealed that only 1.26 per cent of the aspirants tested positive for narcotics, which was about half the national average,” he said.

Others present were former Army Chiefs Gen JJ Singh and Gen Deepak Kapoor and former Air Chief, Air Chief Marshal SK Sareen, various Cabinet ministers, Commonwealth War Graves Commission secretary Richard Hill and WW-II veteran Col Thomas Conway.