Indore: After years of struggle in a hut, a martyred Border Security Force (BSF) jawan’s family finally moved into a concrete house on the dual occasion of Independence Day and Rakshabandhan, all thanks to the efforts of a group of youth from Indore’s Peer Piplaya village.
Mohan Singh Suner had died during a gunfight with militants on December 31, 1992, while being posted in Assam. He left behind a pregnant wife, Rajubai, and a three-year-old son.
The family did not receive any help or benefit under government schemes meant for families of paramilitary forces. Having no means to feed her children, Rajubai took to daily wage jobs and continued to live in a shanty.
A year ago, she had tied rakhi on the hands of some local youth who then pledged to raise funds for the poor family for a ‘pucca’ house and install a statue of Suner in the village in memory of his martyrdom.
“We had started a campaign, titled ‘one cheque-one sign’ and in no time, managed to raise Rs 11 lakh,” said Vishal Rathi, a local. Of this, Rs 10 lakh was used to build the house and the remaining amount for the statue.
On Thursday, the young villagers welcomed their rakhi sister and her younger son Vinod into the new house. Her elder son has recently joined the BSF. The locals also unfurled the Tricolour on the occasion and paid tribute to the late martyr.
“We’re now working to get the government school in our village named after martyr Mohanlal Suner,” said another youth Bhupendra Pancholi.
“After accomplishing that task, we’ll start working in a similar manner to install a statue of another martyr, Sandeep Bariya, by next Raksha Bandhan in the Badnagar area of Ujjain district,” Pancholi said.
(Inputs from Arun Trivedi from Indore)
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