Tusia Devi Honour of "VEER NARI"

 
 
Right to Information (RTI) Act has emerged as important SOS drug for the commoners as the ‘Sanjivani Buti’ to Lakshaman. This has been proved in the travails of Tusia Devi of Kinjar in Bihar’s Arwal district. Justice has been eluding her for over 28 years, mainly to bureaucratic apathy. Hopes flickered again when indefatigable ‘Veer Nar’ moved the Bihar State Information Commission (SIC). Poor Tusia Devi has been running from pillar to post for the last 28 years. This 53-year-old widow of an Army signalman, Mahendra Kumar Sharma, is seeking financial assistance and a plot of land as per the policy of Bihar government, but to no avail so far. She has not been paid the grant of Rs. 10 lakh and other things as given by the then President Gyani Zail Singh.
Sharma, then posted in Goa, had laid down his life while fighting the road robbers who attacked the Bihar transport bus he was travelling in on January 27, 1984, near Jehangirpur village in Jehanabad district. Before dying, he saved the lives of 40 passengers, including 16 school children. A year later, the President conferred ‘Shaurya Chakra’ on Sharma posthumously for his act of gallantry. The Army sanctioned his widow a pension. The then Army chief, General A S Vaidya, in his condolence message to her, had said, “Your husband’s gallantry will always be remembered”. But in no time, it appears, everybody forgot his sacrifice.
Since then, Tusia is fighting a battle for survival. She has approached the President, Prime Minister, defence minister, Army chief and Bihar Governor, Bihar chief minister to get her dues, but without any result. The Army’s letters to her referred her as the `Veer Nari’, who fought odds to raise her two children and who is supposed to get “liberalised family pension” from the Army. On her request for financial assistance, the director of Army Welfare Directorate under the Bihar home department wrote to her that in 1985, there had been no provision for annuity payment to kin of Shaurya Chakra awardees. Finally, Tusia approached the State Information Commission (SIC) in May 2011. “The State government’s refusal to pay me annuity was unjust”, wrote Tusia Devi, in a letter to the SIC. She also has not received the compensation money. Upon her petition the SIC rapped the State government authorities for the dilly-dallying attitude towards a ‘Veer Nari’ and ordered to clear her dues within a fortnight.
 The state government has fixed a price for martyrdom. It has a decided to pay Rs 3,500 to a "Veer Nari", whose husband, an ex-Army man, died while saving the lives of bus passengers and fighting the criminals about three decades back. Army Signalman Mahendra Kumar Sharma was posthumously awarded 'Shaurya Chakra' and her widow Tusia Devi was bestowed the honour of "Veer Nari' by the Army in 1984. Her petitions were pending with the Army Welfare Directorate (AWD) for long and her case came to light only a few months back when the State Information Commission (SIC) sought an explanation from the directorate, which functions under the home department of the state government in this regard.
Tusia Devi is a resident of Kinjar in Arwal district.
AWD public information officer (PIO) appeared before SIC on Wednesday and told information commissioner Farzand Ahmed about the government's decision. PIO Umesh Kumar Verma told a stunned Ahmed and Tusia Devi's lawyer Sachin Thakur that a bank draft of Rs 3,500 was sent to her last week. He also said that earlier the state government allotted 1.69 acre of cultivable land to her in 2007. The directorate pleaded that in 1985 there had been no provision for annuity payment to the kin of a 'Shaurya Chakra' awardee.
Thakur reacted angrily will soon move the Patna High Court for this humiliation. He said, "A kin of government employee, killed in election violence is entitled to get Rs 10 lakh as compensation and a Naxalite on his surrender gets Rs 3 lakh and housing facility."
Eversince the case came up before Ahmed in January, he had been directing the home department officials to have a sympathetic look at the plight of the widow. Last month, the state government representative told SIC that there is no provision for providing ex-gratia to widows of Army men who sacrificed their lives while protecting the lives and properties of citizens. During the last hearing, Ahmed told the PIO there may not be any rule to extend financial assistance to the widow of an ex-Army man whose bravery was recognized by the Army, but every rule has an exception.
It may be recalled that senior record officer of the Jabalpur-based Signal division of the Indian Army, S P Sharma, had on December 5, 2005, recommended an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to Tusia and land to construct house as per state government policy.
In response to Ahmed's query to the state government what a widow like Tusia Devi deserves and what the state has done for her so far, a bank draft of Rs 3,500 has been sent to her. "There is absolutely no provision for any relief to wives of ex-Army men who are not war widows," said a senior official.