New initiatives to improve welfare benefits for ATM veterans - Ismail Sabri

He said the initiatives comprised increasing disaster relief assistance from RM5,000 to RM10,000 and introducing monthly allowance for caretakers of ill veterans.

Another initiative is to expand admission assistance for their children to selected private higher education institutions, which is currently limited to public institutions.

"In addition, we also plan to issue a medical card for all ATM veterans to enable them to get treatment not only from government health facilities but private hospitals and clinics as well," he said after a meet-and-greet session with ATM veteran associations here today.

Also present was ATM Veteran Affairs Department (JHEV) director-general Maj Gen Datuk Dzulkarnain Ahmad.

Ismail Sabri said all JHEV members would benefit from the new initiatives.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry would continue to actively encourage some 100,000 non-pensionable ATM veterans to register with JHEV.

"They may not have registered with the department because they were unaware of it.

"We will also organise 'Cakna Veteran' (caring for the veterans) programme whereby I will be meeting them to hand-over contributions and others, and that's when we will be campaigning for the veterans to register with JHEV so that they can receive assistance from the government," he explained.

In a related development, Ismail Sabri said the Warrior's Fund Campaign would begin mid-August and hoped the veteran associations could actively collect fund to benefit ATM veterans.