Wives of three CRPF jawans from Rajasthan who lost their lives in the Pulwama attack cry of govt apathy
Rajasthan Sainik Kalyan Minister Rajendra Singh Gudha had met the women and Meena on Wednesday.
4 min read
Sitting at a corner of the Shahid Smarak in Jaipur—a designated place for protests and demonstrations— a stone’s throw away from the city’s police commissionerate, 23-year-old Manju Lamba wiped her tears while talking about her reasons for staging the dharna along with two other women.
“When my husband became a shaheed (martyr), the ministers who visited us, the media, we all saw them praising him. We thought that we will send our children too to fight for our country. But with folded hands, we say that we will not send our kids…Aaj koi saath nahin hai hamare (nobody is with us today). The government doesn’t listen to us, instead uses police to disperse us. Why do they call us Veerangana when our voices are not heard,” says Manju, the wife of Rohitash Lamba, one of the 40 CRPF jawans who lost their lives in the Pulwama attack in February 2019.
Manju, along with Madhubala Meena and Sundari Gurjar, the spouses of Hemraj Meena and Jeet Ram Gurjar—the other two jawans from Rajasthan killed in the Pulwama attack from Kota and Bharatpur district—are staging a dharna at the Shahid Smarak, for what they say, is non-fulfilment of promises that the state government made to them after the attack.
“Several ministers of the Rajasthan government had come to our village Govindpura-Basri for the funeral of my husband. My brother-in-law Jeetendra Lamba was promised a government job along with a pledge to construct a memorial for my husband in the village, who sacrificed his life for the country. But till date, nothing has happened,” said Manju.
The wives of the slain jawans have found support from BJP Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena, who sat on the dharna with the women.
“I was promised by the government that a statue of my husband will be installed at the Adalat Chauraha in Sangod and school in our village be renamed after him, but till date these promises have not been fulfilled. These are not big demands. We have tried to meet ministers, who make us sit for hours,” said Madhubala.
Sundari Gurjar, the wife of Jeet Ram Gurjar said she has come to Jaipur from her village in Bharatpur with the demand of a government job for her brother-in-law and construction of a memorial.
“When ministers such as Shanti Dhariwal, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Lalchand Kataria, Pramod Jain Bhaya, Tikaram Jully and Mamta Bhupesh were present in the funerals of the three shaheed (martyr) men, why has the government not fulfilled its promises? Yesterday, we went to the Assembly to meet the chief minister but we were not allowed. The police roughed up our workers. These women, who have lost their husbands who sacrificed their lives for the country, are today running from pillar to post for justice,” said the BJP Rajya Sabha MP.
Rajasthan Sainik Kalyan Minister Rajendra Singh Gudha had met the women and Meena on Wednesday.
“The fact that Veeranganas (wives of the jawans) have to sit on the ground is something shameful. I have the Sainik Kalyan department with me. The monetary compensation, land etc has been already provided to them. At present two of the Veeranganas are asking for government jobs for their brother-in-laws because their children are very small. That provision is not in our norms till now and we will speak about it with the chief minister,” Gudha, a close loyalist of former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, had told reporters.
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