New Delhi, April 7: Amid this coronavirus crisis which has brought disruption across India, people have come forward to help in combating the virus. Even the men in the uniform who had once served the nation by protecting the countrymen are now lending their hands in fighting against the virus. The Ex-Servicemen (ESM) belonging to the Army, Navy and Air Force are assisting the civil administration and serving voluntarily and selflessly.

 

The process is being coordinated by the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) which comes under the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The former servicemen are being contacted through the Kendriya Sainik Board and a network of 32 Rajya Sainik Boards at the state level and 403 Zila Sainik Board all over the country.

 

The ex-servicemen(ESM)  and their associations are contributing to help the local police, in arrangement and distribution of food, and in managing the lockdown, etc across the nation.

 

 

Brig Ravi Munniswamy (Retd) who is coordinating the effort across Karnataka is spearheading a team of 45 veteran bicycle riders in Bengaluru. He with the team has arranged medicine and essential supplies to old and infirm in the city co-ordinating through a WhatsApp group. Nonetheless, there are several ESM volunteers who aiding by handing out food and managing lockdown in Dharwad, Davanagere, Shivamogga, Hassan, Mysuru, and Kodagu.

 

 

In Andhra Pradesh where the cases have reached almost 300, more than 300 Ex-Servicemen volunteers are assisting the police. Some of their associations like Tadepalligudem, West Godavari district association and 28 Air Defence Regiment ESM organization at Mangalagiri are distributing food and essential commodities among the poor whereas the Chaitanya ESM Association, Bheemunipatnam is assisting the police in ensuring lock-down measures.

 

 

In UP, Brig Ravi stated that the Zila Sainik Boards in 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh are assisting with a team of ESM in the monitoring of ration distribution, community surveillance and running of a community kitchen for the needy besides assisting the senior veteran ESM also. They have already looked into the ex-servicemen in the state and contacted 6,592 them from Army Medical Corps and put them on standby for any contingency.

 

 

The Director Rajya Sainik Board of Punjab, Brig Satinder Singh (Retd) informed that they have employed 4,200 Ex-Servicemen as Guardians of Governance who are present in every village of Punjab for data collection and community surveillance.

 

 

Though a handful of ex-servicemen are employed so far, they have to provide assistance to State Police in Bilaspur, Janjgir and Korba. All this process is co-ordinated by Air Cmde A N Kulkarni, VSM (Retd).

 

 

Even, in North East, assistance is provided. With the team involving 300 ESM, Brig Narain Dutt Joshi, SM (Retd) is ready to assist in 19 Districts of Assam. Other ESM, Col Gautam Kumar Rai (Retd) at Shillong has 79 volunteers ready to assist the civil administration. In Tripura, Brig JP Tiwari (Retd) has reported that the list of ESM volunteers has been shared with the State and district administration and they are on standby for any task assigned to them.

 

 

Similarly, Brig Pathak (Retd) from Jharkhand, Col Rahul Yadav (Retd) from Haryana and Brig KB Chand (Retd) from Uttarakhand have done the same in their respective states. At a time when the entire nation is under lockdown, the response from retired personnel of Army, Navy and Air Force as well as volunteer community service by Ex-Servicemen association, is very praiseworthy.