Chief Minister urges the Defence Minister A.K.Antony to set up the proposed CSD Depot in district Una of the State to facilitate the ex-servicemen for their services. In a letter written to the Union Defence Minister, Chief Minister said that the demand for setting up of a CSD Depot in the State had been pending with the Government of India for quite a long time. He said that presently CSD supplies were being drawn from the depots located in Punjab and Haryana and during past two decades demand for supplies had increased manifold and the State qualifies to have one CSD Depot located within the State so that convenient supplies were made to retail outlets. He said that representatives of ex-servicemen and military commanders had been repeatedly raising this issue for early location of a CSD Depot in Himachal Pradesh. He said that it had been intimated that the Ministry of Defence was likely to start the process for setting up of the Depot in the State. He proposed that the Depot should be located in district Una since the area was well connected through broad gauge railway line and would be convenient to transport the supplies from any part of the country to the area.
Prof. Dhumal said that the State had over two lakh serving and ex-servicemen who had rendered valuable service to the nation. He said while the serving soldiers in active service were guarding the national boundaries and rendering yeoman service in emergent duties, the ex-servicemen had also exhibited their valour and bravery when they had been in active service. He said that families of most of them were settled back at their native places who had very often been drawing supplies from the CSD retail outlets. He said that with the early setting up of the Depot supplies would be available to all of them conveniently. He urged the Union Defence Minister for his personal intervention in the matter by directing the concerned authorities to expedite the process of setting up of the Depot in district Una. He assured the Minister of all possible help from the State Government side.
