News India Widows of Navy personnel allowed to become defence officers

Widows of Navy personnel allowed to become defence officers

New Delhi: In a special gesture towards families of its personnel who died in recent mishaps, the Navy has allowed widows of five of them to apply for becoming officers in the maritime force and

The families of the officers and sailors, who were not eligible to become officers, are being given jobs as civilian employees in Group B and Group C posts, the officer said.  The Navy took the requisite permissions from the Defence Ministry to give relaxation to these women in several categories including age and marital status.

After the Kargil war in 1999, the Defence Ministry started allowing widows of officers and jawans to join the services if they met the educational and other requirements for joining the forces.

The Navy had earlier given this relaxation to the families of its personnel who died in an air crash over INS Hansa air base in Goa involving the Ilyushin-38 maritime surveillance aircraft.

In the last one year, the Navy suffered over 15 mishaps in which it lost 21 of its personnel.

The biggest mishap occurred on August 14 last year when the frontline submarine INS Sindhurakshak sank in the Mumbai harbour after an explosion in which all the 18 officers and sailors on board the vessel were killed.  Another fatal mishap took place on February 26 involving the INS Sindhuratna submarine in which two officers lost their lives.

Commander Wadhwa lost his life in the Mazagon Dockyards Limited during testing of the fire fighting equipment of country's biggest indigenous destroyer INS Kolkata which was being readied for induction in the maritime force.

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