India: What does a Param Vir Chakra award winner get as benefits from the government ?
Vijay Rajdhan, No Academic Achievement from National Defence Academy
I have a little say about the monetary award of PVC to late Capt GS Salaria. I was a platoon commander in his company then…1961.
Capt Salaria belonged to a village near Pathankot. His father had retired as a Dafedar (equivalent to havildar) from a cavalry unit. He took part in the first world war in the battle of Cambrai in France.
In early sixties there was no central grant for PVC awardees. State of Punjab had declared an award of Rs One Lac for PVC winners. Rightly the sum should have been paid to his father in about six to eight month’s time after the declaration of the award.
It took me 16 years to be promoted from 2Lt to Lt Col and so happened that I got the command of the same unit that had fought in Congo. By this time, in 1977, Dafedar Salaria had not been given the sum due to him by the State Government.
In the intervening 16 years Dafedar Salaria’s file on his exchanges with the State Government had grown three inches thick. This was even after his repeated visits to the offices of the State Government.
We had invited him to our unit and requested to bring along his file on this issue. We sent a captain with a vehicle to escort him to our unit. I approached the Colonel of our Regiment, (A serving Major General) apprised him of the matter and requested him to take the matter up with the Chief Minister. I on my part wrote a not very polite letter to the then Chief Secretary.
The award came through soon after this. But the lament of the old soldier was, “Ab yeh maray kis kaam ka? In the meantime he had met all his filial responsibilities.
This story may seem irrelevant in these times. I feel younger people aught to know what old soldiers had been through. Widow of CQMH Abdul Hamid, Grenadiers, has also a similar story. She was paid her one lac rupees nearly 37 years after 1965 operations. Disgraceful to say the least.
It hurts.
Edit:— Later Dafedar Salaria presented his son’s decoration to the unit for safe keeping. It is prominently displayed at the most appropriate place in unit…with all respect it deserves.
