Modi government has been increasing funds for defence sector in every budget, Union Minister Murugan
Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan on Monday said that the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been increasing the allocation of funds in the budget every year for modernising the defence sector and to procure latest military equipment.
The Narendra Modi government had ushered in huge changes in the defence sector with the aim of making the country 'Atma Nirbhar' (self-reliant) in defence production capabilities, Mr, Murugan said. He was inaugurating the 206th Outreach programme of SPARSH (System for Pension Administration - Raksha) in Tiruchi for the defence and family pensioners to redress their grievances.
The Centre had promoted two defence corridors — one in Uttar Pradesh and the other in Tamil Nadu. Due to the establishment of the defence corridors, imports of defence equipment had come down. Several defence equipment were manufactured in the country and exported, Mr. Murugan said attributing it to the efforts of Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The Centre had implemented the long-pending demand of One Rank One Pension, he said and added that the Prime Minister had been providing a transparent government. The Controller General of Defence Accounts, New Delhi, Mayank Sharma, said SPARSH was a fully automated pension sanction processing and disbursement system. Under this programme, the Defence Accounts Department was processing and disbursing pensions to about 32 lakh defence pensioners which is about 50% of the total number of Union government pensioners.
The SPARSH programme, being monitored at the highest level, was being organised in different parts of the country to hear the problems of the defence pensioners and try to find system-based and process-based solutions. The level of satisfaction was high, he said.
Lieutenant-General Karanbir Singh Brar, General Officer Commanding of Dakshin Bharat Area, Chennai, and T. Jayaseelan, Controller of Defence Accounts, Chennai, spoke.
The Minister flagged off five SPARSH mobile vans which will travel to all districts in Tamil Nadu for the next 10 days to redress the grievances of the defence and family pensioners at their doorstep. Mr. Murugan gave away cheques worth ₹1.50 crore to 14 defence and family pensioners.
Over 4,000 defence and family pensioners from Tiruchi and other districts attended the mega event. Seventy five counters were put up along with computers, printers, scanners, finger print devices for the defence and family pensioners. Around 200 grievance officers of Controller of Defence Accounts, Chennai, representatives from PCDA (Pensions) Prayagraj, record offices, public sector banks, and other agencies attended to the grievances of defence and family pensioners.
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