Telangana has decided to create India’s first Army welfare fund, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao told the Assembly on Tuesday. The corpus worth Rs 80 crore will include contributions from politicians – Rs 25,000 every year from the chief minister and other state ministers and Rs 10,000 each from MLAs, MLCs and MPs, PTI reported.

The fund is meant for the welfare of both Army personnel and their families. Telangana has also decided to exempt jawans and their spouses from paying taxes on their immobile property.

The announcement comes at a time when services provided to security personnel in India are under scrutiny. In a series of videos that went viral on social media, Border Security Force soldier Tej Bahadur Yadav had alleged that jawans get poor quality food and are forced to sleep on an empty stomach sometimes. He had also made claims of corruption among military authorities.