It has been decided to provide pension benefits to the differently abled War Heroes who volunteered to retire before completing their 12-year mandatory service period with retirement compensation, in par with the pension benefits provided to the War Heroes who completed their 12-year service period under the direction of President Maithripala Sirisena.
That decision was given, in writing, to the representatives of the War Heroes who held a protest in this regard, by Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi during a discussion held at the Defence Ministry, yesterday (07).
As at present, differently abled War Heroes who have completed 12 years in service and the differently abled War Heroes who volunteered to retire before their due retirement day are paid a monthly basic salary and a disability pension.
Differently abled War Heroes who volunteered to retire before their due retirement day were not entitled to pension benefits till today and no government in power drew their attention to this issue.
The President paying his special attention on this issue, a special cabinet paper was submitted to the Cabinet to get its approval and after receiving the Cabinet approved the pension benefits will be provided to War Heros from next February.
According to the military law to get pension benefits a differently abled War Hero should complete 12 years of service for soldiers and 10 years of service for officer ranks.
This benefit is not given to any other government servant. Though the disabled war heroes have already taken the compensation entitled by them, the President decided to grant them this service pension, though the government has to take a large burden in this regard.
Although, these officers retired voluntarily before 2008 and there were no protests for the past 8 years regarding these demands.
Though it is contradictory to grant this service pension to the disabled war heroes who had been in the service for 12 years, the President decided to provide this service pension to them by amending the laws and regulations.
The pension for the war heroes who became disabled had not been paid after they reached 55 years of age. But the President will take action to grant them that pension and their salary throughout their lives.