Twenty-five years is a long time for any family to get its dues. More so, if it comes to the country’s second Param Vir Chakra awardee.
The family of Honorary Captain Karam Singh, who braved the enemy despite sustaining 16 bullet injuries in Jammu and Kashmir’s Teethwaal area in 1948, is running from pillar to post for last 25 years to get their due from various governments in Punjab.
Adding to the misery is the Army’s Sainik Welfare Board finding the family ineligible for any of the welfare schemes meant for gallantry awardees and veterans.
HOPING FOR HELP
The angry family has now threatened to auction the citations and medals won by Karam Singh, including the country’s highest gallantry award, as a mark of protest against the apathy of the Centre and the state towards the Army hero.
“The state government is not taking action despite our countless representations and personal requests. We have met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal four times, besides meeting other ministers. All they pledge are false assurances.
When they are not taking any action, at least we can make our move ( to auction the medals),” Karam Singh’s grandson Satnam told MAil Today. Satnam, (21), added that Badal and his ministers advised them to bring the matter before the Army’s Sainik Welfare Board but the response they received was equally disheartening.
“The answers of government officials were ridiculous. We met many Sainik Welfare Officers, who said they cannot forward our case as we are not entitled for any help as my grandfather was alive when he received the Param Vir Chakra. They say all those Param Vir Chakra and other gallantry awardees, who received government help, had got the decorations posthumously,” he claimed.
Karam Singh’s younger son Harjeet Singh, (50), said, “Like the families of other gallantry awardees, we also wanted some help from the government.
We are not asking for a fortune but at least a state government job for a family member and a gas agency from the Centre.” It was Karam Singh who, himself, had started the long struggle to get government help. The Param Vir Chakra awardee passed away on January 20, 1993 at Mallhian village in Barnala district.
His wife Gurdial Kaur continued to knock at the doors of government offices till she too died in 2010.
Their sons and grandsons have tried their luck as well but all in vain.
The family is also pained by the response of the Centre and the Army. The family had written to General JJ Singh, the then chief of Army Staff, in 2007 and also to the present Army chief, General Bikram Singh, in July last year.
However, both the letters did not elicit any response.
Karam Singh was born on September 15, 1915, in a farmer’s family. In 1941, he joined the Army and was was inducted into the Sikh Battalion. On October 3, 1948, he had foiled the attempt of the Pakistani army to occupy the Teethwaal area of Jammu and Kashmir. He was shot at 16 times but did not leave his bunker and rescued two other Indian soldiers from Pakistan’s captivity.
via Yahoo News India
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