Ambala soldier cremated, kin get ₹50L
AMBALA : Amid slogans of ‘Vikramjit Amar Rahe’, the mortal remains of 36 Rastriya Rifles Lance Naik Vikramjit Singh, 26, were laid to rest at his native Tepla village with full military honours on Thursday.
Hundreds of residents of the village and nearby places gathered at the village early in the morning to bid adieu to the brave son of the land. With moist eyes, his brother, also an armyman posted at Assam, lit the martyr’s pyre while the army and police extended gun salute.
THE FINAL JOURNEY
At 8 am, Vikramjit’s body wrapped in Tricolour was placed in a flower-bedecked army vehicle and a piper band led by Major Sayyed Salim escorted the vehicle from his village to a 14km route.
Scores of vehicles followed them on the route while hundreds of residents had lined up on both sides of the road to pay homage to the departed soldier.
Health minister Anil Vij represented the state government. He, along with state minister Nayyab Saini; MP Rattan Lal Kataria; MLAS Santosh Sarwan, Asseem Goel and Balwant Singh Sadura; former minister Nirmal Singh and senior military and civil officers laid wreaths on the body. Major General KS Nijjar of Two Corps and station commander Brigadier SS Sidhu also placed wreaths in honour of the martyr.
STATE GRANTS ₹50 LAKH TO KIN
Vij said the state government has granted ₹50 lakh to Vikramjit’s wife and parents. He said that ₹23.34 lakh had already been deposited in the bank account of Harpreet, Vikramjit’s wife, and ₹13.33 lakh each were deposited in the accounts of his father Baljinder Singh and mother Kamlesh Kaur.
He said that the state government will also provide a job to Harpreet.
Village sarpanch Sumneet Kaur said that Tepla is known as a village of warriors and every family of the village has at least one member serving the Army. She said that currently, over 200 youths from the village were serving the country and a number of ex-servicemen also reside in the village.
She further said that Vikram was the fourth in the village to have attained martyrdom and before him, Major Gurpreet Singh attained martyrdom during the Kargil War and Harjinder Singh and Vinod Kumar of the village were also killed at the border.
Vikram was killed during a gun battle with terrorists at Gurez sector of Jammu and Kashmir on August 6 and his body reached the village on the evening of August 8.
Meanwhile, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also reached the residence of Vikramjit in the evening to condole his death.