SIDHI, MP: Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh today visited the bereaved family of Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh Baghel at Dhadiya village in Madhya Pradesh and promised continued assistance and support to the soldier’s kin.
“I have come here to salute the sacrifice of brave soldier Sudhakar Singh Baghel. Pension will be given to the martyr’s wife and his elder brother Satyendra Singh has been given appointment in the Jaypee Cement factory here,” Gen Singh told reporters after his two-hour visit.
He also promised 150 bags of cement for the house being built by Baghel’s family and assured them that the assistance would never stop.
“We have given cement for their house and this process of looking after them will go on. We have an Army Wives’ Welfare Association which will look after this,” he said.
He also met Baghel’s wife Durga Singh and described her husband as a “lion” and asked her she could approach him directly any time if she faced any problem.
When Durga was asked whether she wished to send her son to the army when he grows up, she replied in affirmative.
Asked why the Indian Army was not taking any retaliatory action against the Pakistani Army, the general said he did not want to answer any political question.
“I am fully satisfied that the Indian Army is deployed with full alertness along the LoC,” he said.
Baghel’s family has so far received around Rs 65 lakh out of which Rs 44 lakh has been given by the army, Rs 5 lakh by the Minister of State for Defense Jitendra Singh and Rs 15 lakh from the Madhya Pradesh government.
The Army chief said a recruitment rally in the name of the soldier will be held in Sidhi district in July.
Earlier, the Army chief was received at Sidhi by Lt. Gen Anil Chait, Commanding Officer of Central Zone, Lucknow, and Sidhi SP Dharmendra Choudhary among others.
On January 8, Pakistan Army regulars had infiltrated inside Indian territory in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir and killed and mutilated the bodies of Lance Naiks Sudhakar Singh and Hemraj Singh.
Earlier, the Army chief visited Hemraj’s village Khairair near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. -PTI
