Lt Gen (Retd) writes to CDS: ‘Retired personnel, dependants left to fend for themselves’

Lt Gen JS Bhatnagar (retd), former Director General Supply and Transport, has written the letter to the CDS on May 4 urging him on behalf of the veterans of Army, Navy and the Air Force, to issue instructions to the concerned officials to ensure that the veterans and their dependants are not refused or turned away for treatment.

A retired Lt General has written an anguished letter to the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, alleging that there are inadequate arrangements in place to take care of retired service personnel and their dependants in the Covid pandemic and that “they have been left to fend for themselves”.

Lt Gen JS Bhatnagar (retd), former Director General Supply and Transport, has written the letter to the CDS on May 4 urging him on behalf of the veterans of Army, Navy and the Air Force, to issue instructions to the concerned officials to ensure that the veterans and their dependants are not refused or turned away for treatment/admission by the military hospitals.

The General has brought to the notice of the CDS that the veterans are not getting the required medical attention from Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) in the present circumstances. “The pressure on the medical infrastructure of the country needs no elaboration. The retired defence personnel and their dependants are covered under ECHS which is under tremendous pressure in this hour of crises. The ECHS empanelled civil/private hospitals where the retired veterans and their dependants are required to be treated/admitted have shut their doors on them. And to make matters worse, we have opened the doors of military hospitals for the civil population to the tune of 15 per cent,” the letter states.

Asking where should the ex-servicemen and their dependants go in the present circumstances, Lt Gen Bhatnagar has complained that in the past couple of weeks a large number of retired defence personnel and their dependants have lost their lives because of refusal of treatment at the private hospitals and also the military hospitals.

When reached by The Indian Express, Lt Gen Bhatnagar confirmed that he had written the letter to the CDS.

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