Special bank account to serve War Heroes

COLOMBO: A special Bank Account named Api Wenuwen Api (Together for All) will be opened shortly to be utilised for the welfare and use of war heroes in the battle field.

This is in keeping with a concept of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Government which has clearly understood the problems encountered by war heroes in the battle field, said Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

He was speaking at a ceremony at the Defence Ministry Auditorium to mark the grant of loans to disabled Security Forces and Police personnel by the Defence Ministry Seva Vanitha Unit yesterday.

Plans for the setting up of this account have been already finalised in consultation with the Central Bank and other banks and Security Forces personnel and the Police would be educated on this matter under an awareness programme, Rajapaksa said.

Security Forces and Police personnel found it difficult to build houses for themselves due to the exigencies of service. This had become clearly evident when one visited the homes of most war heroes.

The President who understood this has paid special attention towards solving the housing problem of war heroes and assisting towards the education of their children. As a first step a special school for Security Forces and Police personnel's children was opened in Colombo and they hoped to extend the programme to Kandy and other outstations.

Steps have also been taken to inaugurate a special housing scheme to build 50,000 houses for families of war heroes.

They hoped to build a concentration of at least 5,000 housing units at each station such as Ipalogama and Horowpothana under this programme. The objective is to provide war heroes easy access to houses.

Describing the loan scheme started by the Ministry under a subsidised scheme as a very important step. The Defence Secretary called upon the beneficiaries to utilise the money carefully for building their houses.

Defence Ministry Seva Vanitha Unit Vice President Lalith Wijemanne said this is the 12th stage of the credit scheme launched by the Unit in June 1997.

This is a very successful scheme and 170 Army, 81 Navy, 64 Air Force and 95 Police personnel have benefited from the housing loan scheme. On this day, 17 Army, 20 Navy, four Air Force and 12 Police personnel will be given housing loans which has to be settled in easy instalments over a 10 year period without any interest payment.

Defence Ministry Seva Vanitha Unit President Ayoma Rajapaksa Ministry Additional Secretary Sunil Sirisena, Army Seva Vanitha Unit President Anoma Fonseka, Air Force Seva Vanitha Unit President Asoka Karannagoda and Police Seva Vanitha Unit President Ramya Perera were present.