A forgotten sacrifice

The proposal was moved by corporator R Gawde in 1992, and passed at a special meeting convened under the chairmanship of the then municipal commissioner, S S Tinaikar. It was decided to absorb the martyrs8217;relatives in the posts of accountants, assistant accountants, peons, sweepers and other class IV employees. The BMC placed advertisements in 1993 with newspapers asking those eligible to contact BMC offices. The state government was supposed to scrutinise the job applications later. Today, four years later, the government has no records of the people who had approached the corporation in response to the advertisements. Two weeks ago, chief minister Manohar Joshi declared the 105 people as martrys and announced that their relatives would be given pension on par with other freedom fighters. This pension is to be paid to them with effect from August 1 this year.

Congress corporator R R Singh accused the corporation of forgetting the martyrs even as party leaders debate who should be honoured to celebrate 50 years of Independence.