CRPF victims of previous Maoist attack forgotten

NEW DELHI: When her husband died last month in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma, Rinki Yadav was showered with countless offers of condolences and financial help.

Local well-wishers, politicians and reporters flooded her modest home in Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj and assured that a grateful nation would take care of her and the couple’s two children.

But more than a month after the death of her husband Ram Pal Yadav, a constable with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Rinki says the government hasn’t even released his salary for March, let alone pensions.

Neither has she heard from any of the hundreds of well-wishers. “The messages stopped in three days,” says the 29-year-old, sitting next to her five and twoyear-old boys in a one-room rented house. Ram Pal was among 12 CRPF men who were killed in the Maoist-hit Sukma on March 11 while building a crucial road link that can scuttle the insurgents. An almost-identical attack just miles away earlier this week sparked a nationwide wave of sympathy for the paramilitary personnel.

But Rinki says the sympathy and good wishes didn’t help her tide over the crushing burden of daily household expenses. None of the promises of financial assistance have materialised.

“We are barely managing, the CRPF hasn’t credited his March salary nor is there any word about the pension,” she says.

The agency says normally all state and central government arrears were paid instantly to the families but pensions and salaries took between four and six months because of formalities. “We are monitoring it, anyway,” said CRPF deputy inspector general M Dhinakaran.

Rinki’s story isn’t isolated. HT found that high-voltage online campaigns and social media exhortations had translated into little relief on the ground.