The 15th Finance Commission is likely to recommend setting up of a Rs 10,000-15,000 crore fund for the welfare of Jawans killed or injured in combat. The move is part of the panel's discussions on a separate allocation for defence, a task that was given to it later. The panel has set up a task force under 15th Finance Commission chairman NK Singh for the same

NEW DELHI: The 15th Finance Commission is likely to recommend setting up of a Rs 10,000-15,000 crore fund for welfare of Jawans killed or injured in combat. The move is part of the panel's discussions on a separate allocation for defence, a task that was given to it later.

"We were the first (Finance) Commission to visit Ladakh, we saw some very moving presentations on the Kargil war and we recognise that sacrifices by young men for India's protection must be recognised and we need to have some institutional arrangement, like a large corpus for Jawan Welfare Fund. If the corpus is reasonable, then the proceeds from that can go towards welfare of families and Jawans. We need to make sure that there is no duplication because almost every state government and the Centre have funds. We need to pool these resources," 15th Finance Commission chairman NK Singh told TOI.

The panel has set up a task force under Singh to look at various aspects of providing resources for defence and the proposed Jawan Welfare Fund will be part of that. Apart from the finance commission chief, secretaries for defence, home and expenditure will be members.

"We're getting different assessments for defence forces and paramilitary. We need to try and make sure that we don't excessively centralise it and create a robust one for defence and internal security because they are being governed by two large ministries," he said.