German Bakery blast: Victim’s widow grateful to PMC for a job

Yogita Pansare, 25, widow of the late Shankar Pansare, the autorickshaw driver who lost his life in the German Bakery blast, lit the first commemorative candle outside the German Bakery on Friday evening. The first anniversary of the blast will be observed on Sunday.

Yogita was joined by 150 students from standard V to VII of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya in Koregaon Park. They also lit the candles. The PMC school board had organised the function.

After her husband’s death, Yogita has been appointed as a peon in a PMC school in Dhankavdi. The education of her two children, two-and-a-half-year-old Samiksha and four-year-old Omkar, has been assured for free in a PMC school.

“I am extremely grateful as the school board has really helped me in the toughest of times. Within a month, I was given a job at the PMC school as a peon,” Yogita said.

The solemn act reminded everybody of the tragedy that befell Pune city on February 13 last year, in which 17 persons were killed and 60 injured.