AIATF supports war veteran in penury

All-India Anti-Terrorist Front today extended its helping hand to a CRPF veteran -- a participant of the famous 'Hot Springs' battle -- who had been pushed to the margins and was fighting poverty due to familial apathy, among other reasons.
93-year-old Sardar Baljit Singh, who had braved Chinese aggression on October 21, 1959, was handed over a cheque of Rs 1 lakh and a trophy by AIATF Chairman Maninderjeet Singh Bitta here.
Bitta expressed "deep pain" over the fate of Baljit and said that he will meet Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to arrange for a house for him.

"It is a matter of deep pain that a hero like Sardar Baljeet Singh is on the streets. What are the governments doing? What will happen to soldiers like him who are even discarded by their own family members and relatives as there is no agency to look after them," Bitta said.
The felicitation came on the eve of 'Police Commemoration Day', which marks the famous battle in which 9 CRPF men laid down their lives at Hot Springs at Ladakh.
Speaking during the event, Baljit, who was found in penury by CRPF's 13 Batallion Commandant Prakash Rao, lamented that, "Half of the pension goes to buying medicines and the remaining is too little for anything."

"We fought with inadequate clothings and poor weapons. Due to scarcity of bullets, we used to fire one round every half an hour but we did not allow the Chinese to rush in and desecrate the bodies our martyred men," Baljit said reminiscing the cold night of 1959.

After being asked by his own daughter to leave her house, he found himself in dire straits with a pension of Rs 9,500 being his only support.
"Singh belongs to a significant point of history and he is one of our men. We have been trying to extend him all help and provide him medicines and other services," Rao told PTI.

Baljit had also met CRPF Director General Prakash Mishra this year and sought his help in getting a house for himself and his 75-year-old wife.
Mishra wrote a letter to Chief Secretary of Punjab government mentioning Baljit's participation in the Hot Springs battle as a trooper and his present financial hardships, urging for allotment of a house to him in Chandigarh.