Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 1

While the nation is in a patriotic frenzy over airstrikes against Pakistan, the Haryana-based family of Punjab Police Inspector Hari Ram— who achieved martyrdom in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war at the Jammu frontier — has been awaiting land compensation for more than five decades.

The trouble in this peculiar case is that none of the three states — Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir — owns up the martyr. The Army and the paramilitary forces too have expressed helplessness in the matter as the martyr was not part of their force.

His son Varinder Kumar Saini, who runs an electrical equipment repair shop in Tohana in Fatehabad district of Haryana, is struggling to get the compensation.

He says his father Inspector Hari Ram was posted with the Punjab Police before Haryana came into being. In 1965, he was with the Third Battalion which was called to the Jammu frontier to defend the border against Pakistan invasion. At that time, the Border Security Force (BSF) was yet to be raised and policemen assisted the Army on the border. “My father achieved martyrdom in the Chhamb sector in Jammu. My mother was given pension and compensation by the Punjab Government and monetary compensation by Jammu and Kashmir.”

However, some state governments gave land to the Indian Army soldiers prompting the martyr’s family to apply as well. Saini says their residence fell in Haryana after reorganisation of Punjab. But the Haryana Government refused to acknowledge him as a state resident.

When he moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he was asked to approach Punjab too. However, the Punjab Police headquarters gave him a shocking reply that there was no record available about his father’s service with the Punjab Police. A letter written to him by the DGP office said the Third Battalion of Punjab Police was merged with the Central Reserve Battalion Force (CRPF) and the record of all men was handed over to the CRPF. The CRPF in its reply said they don’t have record of the martyr or other men from the Third Battalion.

Meanwhile, the government of J&K said it was the duty of the parent state to provide land in compensation. Saini cited examples of soldiers who were given land by the Haryana or Punjab governments, saying he had been denied the benefit as his father was not a soldier but a policeman. Officials with the police department of Punjab and Haryana said they had replied to Varinder Saini on the status of the case and had nothing more to add.

The case

Inspector Hari Ram achieved martyrdom in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war at the Jammu frontier. His son says Hari Ram was posted with the Punjab Police before Haryana came into being. In 1965, he was with the Third Battalion which was called to Jammu to defend the border against Pakistan invasion.