SP’s family relents on job demand

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 28

Family members of Gurdaspur SP(D) Baljit Singh, who died fighting terrorists at Dinanagar, today said they would not perform his last rites unless the state government appointed his son as an SP and his both daughters as tehsildars. However, the family later decided to abandon its demand following assurances by the authorities concerned.

Gurmukh Singh, brother-in-law of the martyred SP, confirmed that the family would hold cremation at 11.30 am tomorrow. “We have been assured that the family would get its due in time, so there is no issue at all,” he said in the evening.

Talking to mediapersons earlier in the day, Baljit Singh’s son Maninder Singh demanded SP’s post for himself, besides jobs for his two sisters in the civil administration. He said he had been raising the demand at this juncture as his family had seen his father and grandmother running from pillar to post for two years after the suspected killing of his grandfather ASI Acchar Singh in 1984 at Moga. Baljit got the job on compassionate grounds in 1986.

Maninder and his relatives went to Gurdaspur yesterday after coming to know about the incident from TV reports. He, however, chose not to bring back his body saying it would be lodged in Gurdaspur till there was an assurance from the state government about giving him the same rank as that of his father besides tehsildar or equivalent posts for both his sisters Parvinder and Ravinder.

While Maninder is pursuing BTech from a local engineering college, Parminder is doing BA while the youngest sibling is doing BDS. “My family has already suffered a lot due to terrorism. My father was the sole breadwinner. The government has to consider all these aspects,” he said.

Maninder said his father would not have been killed had he been provided proper headgear and other protections in time. A bullet had hit Baljit in the head.

The martyr’s wife stood by the stand taken by her son.

Soon after the reports pertaining to their demands reached the top cops in the region, ADGP Sanjeev Kalra; Jalandhar range IG Lok Nath Angra; DIG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh; and SSP Ashish Chaudhary visited their house and held closed-door meetings with the family members. Former Akali minister and Bholath MLA Jagir Kaur also joined the officers in the meeting. DGP Sumedh Singh Saini’s wife Shobha Saini and former BJP minister Manoranjan Kalia also went to the SP’s house to express condolences.

The IG later said the family did not raise any demand with them. The family had been perhaps misguided, he added. “They had certain suspicions in their mind that we have resolved. We have told them that they will get all benefits as per rules,” Kunwar Vijay Pratap said. The cremation of the martyr would be held tomorrow afternoon while CM Parkash Singh Badal was slated to visit the family tomorrow morning.