Punjab may pay Maharashtra’s war heroes

The Punjab government has responded to the long-standing complaint of gallantry awardees (Paramvir chakra, Mahavir chakra and Vir chakra) from Maharashtra over the denial of a decent monthly allowance.

Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal has decided to extend the state’s monthly allowance for gallantry awardees to those from Maharashtra and other states.

Speaking to DNA from Chandigarh last week, he said the new monthly allowances would be extended to awardees in the top three categories from other states. They will now receive Rs21,000 (Paramvir chakra), Rs11,900 (Mahavir chakra) and Rs7,700 (Vir chakra) from April 2010.

He said his proposal would be presented before the Punjab state cabinet in his budget speech in Chandigarh on March 16.  “Our soldiers are our real heroes and are fighting for India and not any particular state during a war. Punjab considers it its duty and a privilege to pay this monthly allowance to  awardees or their widows from any state,” Badal said.

The topic came under the spotlight at the recent national convention of the War Decorated India (WDI), an organisation of gallantry award winners held in Chandigarh on March 6 and 7, in which Major (retd) Uday Sathe, a Vir Chakra awardee from Pune, informed Badal of the plight of Maharashtra’s awardees.

Sathe said that except for the ‘Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar’ given by the state government comprising a one-time cash award paid in December 1991, the state government had given nothing.