Army to relax age rule for Major Lathar’s widow

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, December 17

Widow of Major Sanjeev Lathar from Bhiwani, who was killed in the Army helicopter crash at Sukna military base in West Bengal on November 30, would be given special relaxation in the age limit to join the Army.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar gave this assurance to Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda when the latter called on him in New Delhi yesterday to submit his charter of demands.

The MP also sought martyr status and Shaurya Chakra for Major Lathar, speedy execution of projects like the National Defence University in Gurugram and Sainik School in Jhajjar’s Matanhail village.

“The Defence Minister has accepted the demand for special relaxation to Major Lathar’s wife in the age limit for joining the Army. Parrikar assured me to consider other demands sympathetically,” said Deepender.

He added that he reiterated his demand of martyr status for all 29 persons on board the missing AN-32 aircraft of the Air Force which disappeared after taking off for Port Blair from Chennai on July 22.

The MP demanded that Army recruitment should be done on the basis of national merit instead of population of the state concerned.

“The youth of Haryana are not getting adequate chance in the Army due to the state population formula. Recruitment should be done on the basis of national merit by scrapping the population formula,” he said.

Meanwhile, talking to mediapersons in Bahadurgarh today, he accused the BJP government of playing vendetta politics with the intention of maligning the image of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Commenting on the transfer of the AJL plot case to the CBI, the MP said the BJP government was frightened by the growing popularity of Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

“The government did nothing except playing vendetta politics and shifting the officers during past two years,” he claimed.