Morarji ‘saviour’ benefits after 26 long years

While Desai had promised a lot of benefits to the village as a whole, things simply did not get a move on until the present Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Ravi Kota dug out the file and followed it up in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The PMO had decided, last week, to send Baruah a sum of Rs 1.5 lakh, which was finally handed over to him yesterday by the Deputy Commissioner.

In the crash, while five crew members including the pilots of the aircraft, gifted to the Indian prime minister by the then USSR government, had died on the spot, Desai, along with his son Kantibhai Desai, the then Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Khandu Thungon and six others had a miraculous escape.

After Baruah rescued Desai, he was administered first aid while Baruah’s mother offered Desai a glass of milk and bananas. Desai spent over three hours in Baruah’s house until a village youth rushed to the nearest police outpost to inform about the incident and a rescue team arrived at Tekelagaon.

Desai was then rushed to the Jorhat Civil Hospital where he spent the night to fly back by a special aircraft the next morning to New Delhi.

Impressed by the courage and dedication with which Baruah handled the situation, the government had announced establishment of a post office at Tekelagaon and constructing a pucca road to it. But none of it has come through in the past quarter of a century.