21 years on, Sangrur village awaits Kargil martyr’s memorial

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, July 26

On Kargil Vijay Diwas when nation paid tributes to soldiers who sacrificed their lives, residents of Banbhaura, native village of Kargil martyr Naik Bahadur Singh, expressed their resentment against the authorities for failing to construct a memorial in his name.

Since the end of Kargil War in 1999, residents have written numerous letters to authorities for the memorial to make the coming generations aware about supreme sacrifice of Singh, but to no avail.

On Sunday also, many children and youngsters were unaware about the sacrifice of Singh in his own village as due to lack of memorial village Panchayat could not organise any function to mark the day.

“We have written letters and met officers and requested repeatedly for the construction of memorial. Authorities can install a statue of my brother or they could construct any gate in village. We want memorial so that all village could remember him,” said Balbir Singh, elder brother of martyr.

After completing his 10th in 1987, Martyr Bahadur Singh had joined Indian Army in 1988 and attained martyrdom in 1999.

“Though villagers have great respect for my brother, but there are many youngsters , who are unaware about the sacrifice of my brother. Its really sad that we are unable every year to pay tributes while all nation does” said Bhajan Singh, another elder brother of Bahadur Singh.

Village Sarpanch Kamaljit Kaur and her husband Sukhdeep Singh Goldy, who is village youth club president, said village has demarcated a piece of land for the statue, but authorities have not woken up to their demand.

“We have hundreds of youngsters in village. If we have memorial of martyr, it would definitely motivate them to join Indian Army. We have also started a sport tournament in the name of martyr, but government authorities have not taken any step to construct memorial,” said Goldy.

When contacted, Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Malerkotla-1, Amandeep Kaur admitted that the villagers had submitted an application for the memorial in local SDM office. “I will look into the matter,” she added.