Delhi route hits CSD car sales in Tricity

CHANDIGARH: Cumbersome norms of seeking sanction from Delhi instead of the local depot have plummeted car sales from Canteen Stores Department to 50% in the Tricity as retired defence personnel prefer to avoid the rigmarole.
As per rules, an officer is entitled to buy a car through CSD after every three years, a junior commissioned officer (JCO) once in five years and a non commissioner officer (NCO) or a jawan once in a lifetime.The facility is available to all serving as well as retired personnel and they receive 8-9% discount. There are around 40,000 ex-servicemen in the Tricity, which can avail the facilities through the CSD.
Earlier, any defence personnel from the Tricity had to apply to Ambala-based CSD depot to buy a car through concessional rates. In 2011, however, the defence authorities put a blanket ban on the sale of cars through CSD. In 2012, the authorities lifted the ban with the condition that the vehicle would be permitted only after sanction from a special cell set up by the ministry of defence (MOD). However, the authorities have not resumed the previous procedure of sale through local depot, resulting of which the defence personnel, especially ex-servicemen, were facing the problem.
Brigadier B S Gill (retd) of War Decorated India said the process was functioning very well for the past many decades but the present procedure was causing huge inconvenience to ex-servicemen.
Lt Col S S Sohi (retd), president, Ex-servicemen Grievance Cell, blamed the shifting of control of CSD from adjutant general branch of the army to MOD. "Now, the control is in the hands of bureaucrats, who never bother about the problems of ex-servicemen, Sohi added.