Insulting with 'Reward'? Firemen at Air Crash Site Get Just Rs 100 from Govt!
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, Apr 19: When it comes to rewarding the right people with the right amount, India seems to be sinking to a new low. We are a nation bereft of heroes, but when we do find them occasionally, we choose to look the other way and get done with the ‘awarding’ part as if it were a burden rather than a pleasure to give recognition where its due.
A few days back we had highlighted the plight of volleyball player Arunima Sinha who lost her leg after she was pushed off the train by three robbers. She was given Rs 25,000 as in-gratia and Rs 2,00,000 followed it the next day. But compare that with the crores that each player received after winning the cricket World Cup, and the apathy is evident.
And now we have an instance that shocks us even more. Our brave firefighters, who worked non-stop at the 2010 Mangalore air crash site for 12 long hours for over 5 days, even managing to save eight lives and recovering all 158 bodies, have been ‘rewarded’ Rs 100 for their bravery. Is this a joke, you wonder.
Yes, it’s cruel joke to play on people who put their own lives at stake to save strangers, who went without food and water and put up with suffocating smoke, debris and the sight of utter human agony and distress. It is not just an immense physical strength and stamina that was required, but also an extraordinary willpower to keep going mentally when all around there was only death and destruction.
Our firefighters showed an astonishing amount of courage in that situation, and all they get for their relentless efforts is a less-than-meagre Rs 100. And some of them get a little more – Rs 140. Wish we could send our politicians to do what these heroes had done. Not even a single neta would have even gone to the site.
Not only that, the reward comes a whole 11 months after it was first promised by chief minister Yeddyurappa who at that time had asserted that he would reward each of them ‘suitably’. Is this a suitable reward? We don’t need to be rocket scientists to judge that.
It would have been better if they had been given only plaques commending their efforts, without the insult of ‘bestowing’ an amount that would not even meet their auto expense to go to the district treasury, from where they have been asked to collect the money. It is matter of great shame that even in this age and era, our politicians think nothing of rewarding the bravehearts with just Rs 100, while their own coffers are filled with hundreds of crores.