Government swindles war heroes

Sunday, 24 June 2012

The government has failed to fulfill the pledge to grant Rs. 100,000 to every third child born to a military personnel’s family, sources from the security forces said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his 2011 budget speech pledged to give Rs. 100,000 to the third child born to every war hero’s family.

Out of the 130,308 families of married military personnel, only 1,521 families have been selected to provide this facility. Minister Dinesh Gunawardena informed parliament recently that 789 such families had been paid the promised amount.

However, sources from the three armed forces say that information has not yet been received of any military family that has received the facility.

They say the government has not taken any steps to make the payment although documents in relation to the facility have been prepared and constantly upgraded.