Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 16: Team Jammu today asked the State Government to treat gallantry award winners of Jammu and Kashmir with the other counterparts of the country. Team Jammu observed that gallantry award winners of J&K are not given due recognition by the State Government.
While reacting to the decision of the Government to extend benefits to families of Army and para-military force personnel of J&K at par with the police personnel martyred in State, Chairman of the Team Jammu Zorawar Singh Jamwal, while addressing the members and volunteers during a meeting held here today, said that it was victory of the nationalist forces of the State.
He reminded that it was Team Jammu which had first of all raised this issue following the incident of recent Uri attack in Kashmir valley during which two out of 17 soldiers belonged to Jammu.
“Ultimately the State Government has realized that the Army and para-military force personnel of J&K, who attained martyrdom in the State or outside, be treated with the martyrs police personnel of J&K”, Zorawar Singh Jamwal said and added that struggle of the Team Jammu ultimately yielded positive results.
He pointed out that majority of the Army and security forces personnel, who attained martyrdom in and outside the State, belonged to Jammu Province. He asked the State Government to immediately pass on Friday’s Cabinet decision at the lower level so that process to extend such benefits should be started as early as possible.
Chairman of the Team Jammu also pointed out that there was a need to conduct extensive survey in all areas so as to identify all martyrs of the State so that their families would take benefit of State Government’s decision.
Zorawar Singh Jamwal regretted that gallantry award winners of the State are not treated equally as per their counterparts in other parts of the country. Giving so many examples of others States of the country, he said, “take example of neighbhouring Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Harayana States where monthly honorarium to the gallantry awardees is in thousands while here in Jammu and Kashmir, it is mere in few hundreds, which is again a sheer disgrace to those valiant soldiers who exhibited valour during the need of the hour, kept their lives at high risk and upheld the nationalist spirit.
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