Madhya Pradesh: Murdered jail head warder may not get ‘shaheed’ status

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BHOPAL: Bhopal jail head warder Ramashankar Yadav, who was murdered during the October 2016 jailbreak by alleged SIMI undertrials, does not qualify for martyr status and the accompanying ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh, according to the state finance department.

The finance department has flatly rejected a prison department proposal to give ‘martyr’ (shaheed) status to jail staff killed in the line of duty, just as personnel of police and armed forces are entitled to, say sources. This enables families of the martyrs to ‘extraordinary pension’ (last salary drawn) and ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh, in addition to other benefits.

The prisons department proposal was necessitated because chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had publicly hailed Yadav as a martyr and announced the ex gratia.

The additional chief secretary (ACS) of finance turned down the jail proposal, with a note that the working of prison guards and policemen is entirely different. According to sources, the ACS noted that convicts and undertrials cannot carry weapons while jail warders are always armed. Unlike jail guards, policemen work in a diverse situation so jail guards cannot be given martyr status, the officer noted. Finance officials also felt that broadening the ambit of martyr status might add to the financial burden on the government.

ADG-prisons G R Meena said, “The finance department has disapproved of our proposal. We will send a fresh, strong recommendation for the same once again.”

 As soon as word got around that the jail department proposal had been turned down, the buzz in administrative circles was what will happen of the Rs 25 lakh given to the family of the slain warder following the CM’s announcement?
 “We don’t think this money needs to be recovered. It can be adjusted under some special pool,” said a senior officer of the jail department, remarking that the objection raised by the finance department was “uncalled for”. “Policemen who become casualties are often called martyrs, why are jail guards being denied the status,” asked an officer, pointing out that Yadav was unarmed and the prisoners had used a “sharpened spoon to cut his throat” (it was said to be a sharpened steel thali at the time).
 The CM had met Yadav’s family and declared him a martyr publicly. Jail minister Kusum Mehdele, MoS-cooperatives Vishwas Sarang and several bureaucrats had attended Yadav’s cremation that day. Speaking to reporters after paying tributes to Yadav, Chouhan had slammed politicians who were making a “hue and cry over the slain SIMI men terrorists but did not have a word of solace for the martyred policeman”.

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