New Delhi,The Defence
Minister Arun Jaitley today emphasized on further strengthening and
modernizing the military capabilities of the country by developing indigenous
systems through sustained research & development. In his customary
broadcast to the Armed Forces personnel this evening, Shri Jaitley said the
government is ‘trying to further strengthen our capabilities in the
northern sector. We are attaching top priority to the strengthening of the
infrastructure in this sector by building and upgrading border roads, strategic
bridges and airfields. We are enhancing other capabilities along the land and
sea borders. Steps are also being taken to modernise the Army's infantry and
artillery units, so that they can easily work in a seamless and net-centric
environment’.
Following is the English rendering of the Defence Minister
Shri Arun Jaitley’s customary address to the Armed Forces personnel broadcast
over All India Radio on the eve of Independence Day:
My Dear Jawans,
Tomorrow we shall be celebrating our 68th Independence Day. On
this occasion, I extend my heartiest greetings and convey my best wishes to
each one of you serving in the Armed Forces, be it in the Army, Navy, Air Force
or Coast Guard. I also extend my greetings to all veterans and ex-servicemen
including all your family members.
As I speak to you, my thoughts are with the near and dear ones of all those who
laid down their lives for our nation in the line of duty. Since you are
at the forefront of our nation’s defence, I assure you that the Government is
committed to do whatever necessary to keep your morale high.
After taking over, I had the opportunity to visit few bases and establishments
of the army, navy and air force. I also interacted with several officers and
jawans during these visits. I have seen the difficult circumstances under which
you work while guarding our borders or when operating against terrorists.
Dear Jawans, while modernising and upgrading weapons and
platforms remain our priority, we are fully aware that in the final outcome the
man behind the machine will always remain a key factor. Thus the Government is
taking all possible measures for your well-being through various welfare
measures.
I am aware of the hardships and agony of long separations
of Jawans from their families when serving in forward and inhospitable
high-altitude areas. This does partially affect the mental make-up of some
Jawans which has a bearing on their everyday life. The Government is therefore
working on the Married Accommodation Project or MAP to provide nearly two lakh
units for the married personnel near their places of posting.
Another important concern relates to ensuring the best
possible health care facilities to our serving and retired Jawans, spread
across the length and breadth of the country. To make it possible, the
Government is operating the ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme or ECHS,
as it is commonly known. This facility has now been widened further and 391
polyclinics have been established in the country out of 426 sanctioned to
extend quality and affordable health care facilities to you all. Now, efforts
are on to further fine tune this scheme so that your grievances can be
addressed in a better way.
Besides these steps, the Government has also taken many
measures, to make the life of soldiers a little bit more pleasant and congenial
in the home-front by allowing liberal LTC and leave concession amenities and
extension of canteen facilities to more areas in the country.
Dear Jawans, our Government is particularly keen to reduce
the stress and strain of millions of ex-servicemen who gave their best for our
country. They deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labour by leading a happy
and dignified life now. Acceding to their long-pending genuine demand of
‘One-Rank-One Pension’, the Government decided to accept the same by allocating
a sum of Rs. 1000 crore in this year’s Union Budget. This will ensure the
implementation of the scheme in the current financial year itself.
Government is conscious of your demand for establishment
of a National War Memorial in honour of our brave martyrs of independent India.
Keeping the sentiments of our soldiers in mind, the Government has decided to
establish the National War Memorial in Delhi for which we have allotted a sum
of Rs. 100 crore in this year’s budget. The Memorial in honour of our martyrs
is proposed to be built in the vicinity of India Gate and it will be
supplemented by a War Museum.
The Government is well aware of the need to maintain all
round vigil in the nation’s borders, to prevent any misadventure from across
the borders. Therefore, keeping our war machinery in readiness and to be able
to mobilise troops to forward areas at short notice is imperative. No
responsible Government can afford to ignore this aspect.
This requires a balanced strengthening of infrastructure
in this sector by building and upgrading our border roads, strategic bridges,
airfields, advanced landing ground among others. To achieve this, the
Government has assigned this task to our Border Roads Organisation and other
Central agencies, while relaxing environmental norms for such critical
infrastructures. In order to carry out this task in a time-bound manner without
cost overruns, the Border Roads Organisation has been authorised to engage
outside expert agencies in the building of tough and technologically intensive
border roads on a case-to-case basis.
Extension of railway network in the border areas is
another way through which we can expedite the modernisation process and
facilitate quick mobilisation of troops and weapon systems. To begin with, the
Government has allocated Rs. 1000 crores for accelerating the development of a
railway system in the border areas.
Dear Jawans, taking lessons from the 26/11 terrorist
attacks on Mumbai, the Government has taken elaborate measures to strengthen
our coastal security apparatus by plugging loopholes in sea-patrolling and air
defence mechanism. In this year’s budget, necessary funds have been provided to
establish more number of marine police stations, completion of National Coastal
Surveillance Network and commissioning of new Coast Guard Stations and Offshore
Patrol Vessels. The recent induction of India’s largest aircraft carrier INS
Vikramaditya, I am sure will definitely enhance our surveillance power and add
teeth to our blue-water operating capability.
The role of Indian Air Force in defending our air space is
enormous. The IAF is now undergoing a revolutionary transformation through
acquisition of new high-end and state-of-the-art fighter and transport aircraft
and helicopters. These are expected to meet the challenges of 21st century
air warfare.
Lastly, you will agree with me that an independent and
self-respecting nation like ours cannot afford to remain dependent on imports
for meeting the needs of its weapon systems and equipment. The development of
indigenous systems through sustained research and development is essential to
enjoy freedom from external controls.
The Government wants speedy indigenisation in the defence
sector and to make it happen has decided to enhance the Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI) limit from the present 26% to 49% with more emphasis on
opening some non-strategic, non-core areas to private industries and encourage
more public-private partnership in defence sector. In this context, I
congratulate the scientists and technologists of DRDO and other defence related
institutions for their good work in equipping our Armed Forces with the state-of-the-art
weapons and equipment, developed and produced indigenously.
With these words, I once again extend my greetings to all
of you on the eve of Independence Day. I convey my sincere wishes to all of you
and your family members for a bright future.
एक टिप्पणी भेजें