Rajnath Singh Launches Portal To Help Families Of Troops Killed In Action, Credits Akshay Kumar

The government is making all out efforts to ensure that families of troops killed in the line of duty are provided a compensation of not less than Rs. one crore, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said.

Mr Singh declared this after inaugurating a new government website, along with actor Akshay Kumar, that will allow common people to make monetary donations to families of paramilitary troops killed in action, with an upper limit of Rs. 15 lakh to a single family.

"It has been our constant effort to ensure that a family of a martyr who is killed in action does not get a compensation amount less than a crore...I have said that I am even ready to spread my hands and seek funds from my countrymen in this regard," Mr Singh said during the ceremony which also marked the annual 'Valour Day' event of the CRPF.

He added some state governments also provide such funds to families of troops killed but still some "gap" remains and their effort is to fill up these.

The Minister added the country will remain indebted to its soldiers forever and that their welfare is his "top priority" by saying: "hum aapka ehsaan kabhi nahi utaar payenge" as he lauded the men and women of paramilitary forces deployed for operations in some of the most difficult and hard areas in the country.

As per present compensation norms, the family of a slain soldier of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF, SSB, NSG and Assam Rifles gets about Rs. 50-60 lakh and the "gap" the Minister talked about ranges between Rs. 40-50 lakh before they get the Rs. one crore compensation.

The website, www.bharatkeveer.gov.in, is a step in this direction and has been launched after Akshay Kumar met Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi about 2.5 months back with a proposal in this regard.

The 'khiladi' Kumar said his idea of getting a website made was to engage the entire 125 crore population of the country with the personnel in uniform so that anyone could contribute and feel proud by helping the families of such troops.

Calling himself the "son of an army man" and not an actor in the event, Mr Kumar said he hit upon the idea when he saw a documentary where it was described that terror elements motivate people to join them and undertake violence in lieu of promise of "good money" to their families.

Mr Singh complimented Mr Kumar for winning the national award
for best actor recently and called him 'action Kumar' for doing heroic deeds in not only his films but also in social life too.

Talking high about the sense of duty of the CAPF personnel, Singh said these troops always help and save the lives of even those who pelt stones on them in the Kashmir valley.

"I am sure the situation in Kashmir will improve," he said.

The Minister added there has been a dip of about 45-50 per cent in violent incidents in the Left Wing Extremism-hit areas and about 70-75 per cent in the insurgency affected areas of the North East.

The new website inaugurated today provides details of CAPFs personnel killed in the last over an year with their name, age, incident where they made the supreme sacrifice, the name of dependent family members. Any amount of payment up to Rs. 15 lakh can be made either through a debit/credit card or net banking facility by the donor.

The portal is powered by country's largest lending bank SBI and will be maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

The contributor will also be acknowledged about his or her donation by an auto-generated website certificate issued under the seal of the Home Ministry.

Mr Kumar had recently donated Rs. 9 lakh each to the families of 12 CRPF personnel who were killed in a Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh's Sukma on March 11.

Few days later, badminton player and Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal had made a similar contribution and donated Rs. 50,000 each to these families of the CRPF men.

The CAPFs are not only deployed for guarding Indian borders but they also render a variety of internal security tasks including tackling the Naxal menace in Left Wing Extremism-hit states.