Home for veterans comes up in P’kula

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 10

In its endeavour to provide comfortable, secure and dignified housing facilities to veterans in the twilight of their lives, a state-of-the-art senior veterans’ home, “Ashray”, has been established by the Western Command in Panchkula.

It would cater to veterans above the age of 70 years. Single officers, couples and widows drawing military pension are eligible to join the home and different tariffs have been fixed for officers, JCOs and other ranks for accommodation, messing and allied facilities.

Special provisions will be made for widower of a lady officer, parents of fatal battle casualty or an extremely needy person.

Set up in the Basantar Complex, the five-storeyed home has 60 fully furnished air conditioned dwelling units. It is well-equipped with facilities such as mess, bar, gymnasium, yoga room, elevators, cable TV, recreational rooms, power back-up, round-the-clock security and medical care.

Describing the establishment of Ashray as just a small step towards recognition of veterans’ services, Lt Gen KJ Singh said so far 31 applications had already been received from veterans. The home would employ civilian staff for its day-to-day functioning and all expenses would be met from the tariff collected from users and a corpus that would be set up by the Command.

He said the home would be formally inaugurated on October 2 by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Chief of the Army Staff Gen Dalbir Singh would also be present on the occasion.