Other States - Orissa   

War hero’s kin in dire straits

KORAPUT: A hand-written letter addressed by the Prime Minister of the day extols the heroic deed of the son of the soil. Another letter written by an official says that the Army is proud of the supreme sacrifice.

But the family of Jesudan Khosla, who is perhaps the first martyr from the region in independent India, suffers in silence with no help whatsoever from the government.

Jesudan fell fighting the enemy during the India-Pakistan war in 1965.

“The former Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastry, in his condolence message, expressed the nation’s gratitude for the heroic achievement of Jesudan on the warfront,” recollects his younger sister Annapurna Mary while showing the letter.

Born in 1944, Jesudan joined as a Signal Man in the Ambala Regiment of the Indian Army in 1961. “Right from the time he joined the Army, he had shown great courage and brought honour to the country,” says his younger brother Brajananda Khosla.

“The then officer in-charge of the Signal unit Lt. Col. D.S. Smith, in his letter, said the Army is proud of the supreme sacrifice,” the siblings recollect. “In fact, Smith said that the Army would never forget the sacrifice,” they say.

The authorities concerned are yet to make the comforting words and promise of support a reality.

The State Soldier Board had addressed a letter to the Army Headquarters and also to the State Government seeking release of the ex gratia amount of Rs. 2 lakhs to the next of kin of the martyr.

“My father John Khosla who was suffering from chest cancer breathed his last in 1991 without sufficient monetary help for the treatment,” rues Mr. Brajananda.

“Further, there is no initiative on the part of the administration to remember the first martyr of Independent India from the region,” he alleges.

Remembering the son of the soil on the occasion of Martyr’s Day on Sunday, local MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati and others stressed the need to initiate measures to give the martyr the pride of place.

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