Dehradun, Nov. 4 -- Union Minister of State for Transport General VK Singh (Retd) today called upon the nation to respect its soldiers and defence veterans. He was speaking here on the occasion of a seminar on defence related issues hosted jointly by the state government and a leading Hindi daily, Amar Ujala. Singh asserted that a country where soldiers or the defence veterans were not respected could never make progress. He added that the morale of the soldiers ought to be boosted regularly and their spirit ought to be kept high for the sake of the nation's welfare.

Singh also praised the contribution of Uttarakhand towards the defence and security of India and noted that almost every other household in the state had someone in the arme...