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Efforts to trace 1971 PoWs will continue: Antony

NEW DELHI: Defence Minister A.K. Antony said on Wednesday the government would continue with its efforts to trace 54 missing armed forces personnel believed to have been taken prisoner by Pakistan during the 1971 war.

Addressing a meeting of war widows here, Mr. Antony said the fate of the Prisoners of war (PoWs) and their families continued to haunt him. “We tried our best but still we are not able to find the truth,” he said. When told by relatives that they were allowed to visit Pakistan to verify their claims but did not visit “all the places,” he said: We have not abandoned our efforts and will continue whatever is humanly possible in this regard to locate these people.”

The issue of prisoners of the 1971 war is an emotional one and the government has always maintained that it will try to trace them, although 37 years have elapsed. Last year, the then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf allowed relatives of the PoWs to visit his country to check on the missing PoWs. But later the families complained that they were not permitted to visit all the places. The families are keeping their hopes alive on the basis of reported sightings of these men by those who had spent time in Pakistani prisons. Both Indians and Pakistanis had contacted the relatives to say that these men had been seen. But most of the sightings are over a decade ago.

Mr. Antony said funds would not come in the way of formulating welfare schemes for about 30 lakh ex-servicemen and war widows. The government was evaluating modern techniques to generate additional funds, and a proposal to increase the number of scholarships to children of retired armed forces personnel and war widows for higher technical education was under active consideration.

“Although a life can never be compensated through financial remuneration, varying ex-gratia payments for death in war or war-like operations do help the families to tide over the crisis. Pension cases of war widows must be settled without delay, so that they are not put to any undue inconvenience. Similarly, we also need to ensure that the widows get the best possible medical facilities within the vicinity of the areas they live in. I have got some feedback of limitations in the Employees’ Contributory Health Scheme. It is our earnest endeavour to measure up to the expectations,” the Minister said.

Although a large number of schemes such as reservation in medical and dental colleges, provision of war memorial hostel at the district level and railway travel concessions already existed for the welfare of widows, Mr. Antony admitted that these were inadequate and needed to be upgraded. “We all must jointly shoulder the responsibility to ensure that the families and dependents of our valiant soldiers can lead a more fulfilling life in every possible way.”

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