Family members of martyrs on dharna outside the CM’s residence in Chandigarh on Friday. Tribune Photo: Pradeep Tewari

Chandigarh, October 14

Widows and other family members of martyrs of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars today rejected the Rs 50-lakh grant-in-aid announced by the Punjab Government, while refusing to call off their protest outside the Chief Minister’s residence.“We want the compensation which we have been demanding for the past several months,” said Gurmeet Singh, son of 1971 war widow Shinder Kaur. “We will continue with our protest till our demands are met,” said Gurmeet, who was speaking on behalf of protesting families and war widows.Several war widows and their family members have been staging a protest in front of Parkash Singh Badal’s residence here since September 27.

They have been demanding financial compensation in lieu of 10-acre land announced in 1975.“Is this the way to treat the families of martyrs?” asked Baljinder Kaur of Chamba Kalan (Tarn Taran), whose father, Sepoy Balwinder Singh, died in the 1971 war.Meanwhile,

PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh assured to take up their issue with the Union Defence Minister.“It is very embarrassing. The government should either give 10 acres or pay the money,” said Amarinder, who was joined by party leaders Sunil Jakhar and Ravneet Bittu.Earlier, a spokesperson for the CM’s office stated that under the 1975 policy, over 1,500 war widows, who had applied in time, were allotted up to 10 acres of agricultural land or equivalent cash.However, there were nearly 100 cases in which the applicants failed to apply within the stipulated period. About 100 such cases had applied till the extended cut-off date of January 4, 2010.The spokesperson added that the residual agricultural land available for allotment was either locked up in litigation or in unauthorised possession, which rendered it practically impossible for the war widow allottees to take over possession of the land.Therefore, keeping in view the demands of war widows, the state government decided to honour the deserving cases of war widows with the cash grant. — TNS & PTI