The misery of Kannama Bhumiya is no less than that of the Bardhans. She lives in a half-built concrete house covered with tin sheets in Gaudaguda, a small tribal hamlet four km from Malkangiri. The house was being built by Kannama’s husband, Sudarshan Bhumia. The latter was one of the police casualties in the landmine blast at MV126 village. Kanamma is facing the same problem as Mase and Manini. Though she has already got the compensation and insurance, she is still struggling to secure a plot of land and a job.
However, the story of Prabhati Mishra, wife of late Reserve Inspector Sarat Chandra Mishra, is quite different. More than for her own survival, she is struggling to keep her husband’s dream alive. Inspector Mishra had started a free school for tribal students. Prabhati is doing all she can to keep the school going. But government procedures have become a big hurdle. Forget the promises about land or job, she is yet to receive any gratuity or family pension, that too after meeting and requesting the chief minister more than once.
Why are the widows and orphans of slain policemen treated with such insensitivity? Manmohan Praharaj, director-general of Orissa Police, says: “We are providing compensation immediately to the families of the policemen who have lost their lives in Naxal attacks. About land and job, it’s part of a process. But yes we are looking into the matter and trying to find out any lacuna if at all it’s there. However, a few legal issues are also involved in this process. The processes are taken care of quite quickly in those districts which were announced as Naxal-infected, but in the other districts, the work becomes a bit time-consuming. But this is by no means deliberate.”
Try telling that to people like Mase or Manini or Jayakrishna. They will, given half a chance, tell the people who call the shots exactly what is going wrong. But is anybody willing to listen? Insensitivity is the norm and brave young men are used simply as cannon fodder in a war that probably has no victors.
The battles the families of fallen heroes have to wage to get their dues are just as hard as the ones the jawans deployed to protect the country’s internal security are engaged in day in and day out. Given the callous manner in which the government operates, can the widows of the martyrs ever hope for a better deal?
However, the story of Prabhati Mishra, wife of late Reserve Inspector Sarat Chandra Mishra, is quite different. More than for her own survival, she is struggling to keep her husband’s dream alive. Inspector Mishra had started a free school for tribal students. Prabhati is doing all she can to keep the school going. But government procedures have become a big hurdle. Forget the promises about land or job, she is yet to receive any gratuity or family pension, that too after meeting and requesting the chief minister more than once.
Why are the widows and orphans of slain policemen treated with such insensitivity? Manmohan Praharaj, director-general of Orissa Police, says: “We are providing compensation immediately to the families of the policemen who have lost their lives in Naxal attacks. About land and job, it’s part of a process. But yes we are looking into the matter and trying to find out any lacuna if at all it’s there. However, a few legal issues are also involved in this process. The processes are taken care of quite quickly in those districts which were announced as Naxal-infected, but in the other districts, the work becomes a bit time-consuming. But this is by no means deliberate.”
Try telling that to people like Mase or Manini or Jayakrishna. They will, given half a chance, tell the people who call the shots exactly what is going wrong. But is anybody willing to listen? Insensitivity is the norm and brave young men are used simply as cannon fodder in a war that probably has no victors.
The battles the families of fallen heroes have to wage to get their dues are just as hard as the ones the jawans deployed to protect the country’s internal security are engaged in day in and day out. Given the callous manner in which the government operates, can the widows of the martyrs ever hope for a better deal?
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