CHANDIGARH: To celebrate, honour and remember martyrs and heroes in a special way, a young social activist from here has come up with his ‘Ek Eent Shahid Ke Naam' (One Brick In the name of Martyr) project.
Sanjeev Rana believes it is useless to expect governments to build memorials for fallen soldiers. His first joint effort with people will bear fruit this week—an akhara in Kehri Man Singh village of Karnal district in the memory of CRPF’s Ram Mehar, who was killed in Chhattisgarh a few days ago. Mehar’s family has donated land, and every resident of the village and nearby villages will donate one brick, a cement bag or one’s day labour charges for the akhara.
About 5,000 villagers and 2,000 residents of the tri-city (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali) have come forward for this cause.
“After my brother’s cremation, no one from the government helped us. We are happy that people are helping in our endeavour to fulfil the memory of my brother,” says Ramesh Kumar.
A family in Kurukshetra wants to replicate this effort for a park in the memory of their son Mandeep Singh, who was beheaded by Pakistani troops.
Both families have refused government help.
“It all started when Lt Col Bikramjit Singh was killed in J&K three years ago. When his family tried to get permission to celebrate his first death anniversary, they had to run from pillar to post. Permission was denied to celebrate his second death anniversary,” says Rana.