Bengaluru: The Pulwama terror attack of February 14 shocked the nation, which grieved as one for the 40 soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who were killed in it. While there was an outpouring of support for their families too at the time, one martyr’s family is being treated shabbily by the Uttar Pradesh government and is caught in a web of red tape as it waits to be paid the full compensation promised.
Constable Koushal Kumar Rawat from Agra was killed along with his fellow CRPF soldiers in the suicide attack by a vehicle bomber in the Pulwama attack.
While the Uttar Pradesh government lost no time in giving his family Rs 25 lakh as compensation, it has still not given it another amount, which reportedly exceeds Rs 25 lakh, collected from the one-day salary deducted from the pay of the staff of various departments, even nine months after the tragedy.
And to the family’s dismay, the promise of local politicians to build a ‘Shaheed Smarak’ (memorial) at Rawat’s funeral has become mired in a land dispute with some locals opposing its construction.
“We stay in Gurgaon and are being made to run from pillar to post in Agra for the compensation we have been promised. We want to be treated with dignity. When my mother in an emotional outburst said that the administration of Agra was moving at a snail’s pace, the district magistrate was curt to her. My father has sacrificed his life for the nation and we are only asking what we deserve,” said the late constable’s son, Vikash Rawat.
