Give extra care to Armed Forces, Antony tells states

KOZHIKODE: Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday asked the state governments to give "extra care" to Armed Forces personnel as "they are the ones who served the interests of the nation burning the midnight oil".
    
"Armed Forces personnel serve our country burning the midnight oil and they deserve a better deal from the state governments," Antony said addressing an Armed Forces Veterans Meet as part of 'Army Mela 2008' here.
    
While the Centre had been initiating several measures to provide welfare to the Forces, the state governments also had a responsibility to take care of their interests, he said.    

"The Armed Forces family is the biggest in the country with 13 lakh serving personnel and 23 lakh ex-servicemen," he said, adding it was difficult to see such a large family serving the interests of 110-crore population.
    
He said it was after becoming the Defence Minister that he understood several problems faced by the Armed Forces.     

"It is like when I was a student I used to raise slogans against the Police. But it was only after I became a state Minister I realised the problems faced by police personnel in ensuring law and order," he said.
    
The Centre was proposed to form a 'National Ex-servicemen Commission' to look into the problems faced by former jawans, he said.
    
While 87,000 houses would be ready by March next for jawans under the `Marriage Accommodation' project, another 66,000 houses would be constructed in the second phase at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, he added.