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| - Fact Check: Did the Centre deny 'martyr' status to CRPF jawans who lost lives in Bijapur?
Several Facebook users recently claimed that the Centre has denied "martyr" status to CoBRA jawans who died fighting the Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur.
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India Today Fact Check
There is no official nomenclature as “martyr” in the defence and paramilitary services. However, the family or next of kin of jawans killed in action are given pension, compensation and other additional benefits.
A Facebook post has gone viral with the claim that the Union government has denied “martyr” status to CoBRA jawans who laid their lives fighting the Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur recently.
Several Facebook users have shared the screenshot of an “Aaj Tak” article with a headline in Hindi which translates to, “Centre tells high court, paramilitary forces cannot be given martyr status”.
Netizens have shared the image with a caption in Hindi which says, “Can’t the government of this country provide martyr status to CoBRA commandos of CRPF who were martyred in Bijapur? This government cannot insult the martyrs and soldiers of our country like this”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that there is no official nomenclature as “martyr” in the defence and paramilitary services. However, the family or next of kin of jawans killed in action are given pension, compensation and other additional benefits.
The archived versions of the posts are saved here and here.
AFWA investigation
The viral post has a screen shot of an “Aaj Tak” news article which we found was published in 2015. As per this article, in response to a PIL, the Centre had informed the Delhi high court through an affidavit that the term “martyr” is not used in the defence services for any force.
In 2018, as per an article by “The Economic Times” the Union government in an affidavit told the Delhi high court, “The prayer... to grant ‘martyr’ or ‘shaheed’ to Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) at par with Army, Navy and Air Force is misconceived as the very same status is not actually being granted to the personnel of Army, Navy and Air Force.”
The government also said that “in Army/Navy/Air Force, the nomenclature for the word ‘martyr’ is battle casuality and physical casuality. The word ‘martyr’ is not used in the three services”.
We found that on December 22, 2015, then Lok Sabha MP Neelam Sonkar had asked the Home ministry whether the government proposes to give martyr status to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel who lost their lives fighting terrorists and Maoists. Paramilitary forces, including CRPF and BSF, come under CAPF.
Then junior Home minister Kiren Rijiju had replied, “The ministry of defence has informed that the word ‘martyr’ is not used in reference to any of the casualities in Indian Armed Forces. Similarly, no such term is used in reference to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles (AR) personnel who are killed in action or in any operation.”
Benefits for next of kin
Following are the benefits the next of kin of a martyr in CAPF gets.
- Ex-gratia compensation of Rs 35 lakh for death on active duty and Rs 25 lakh for death on duty.
- Liberalised family pension under Central Civil Service (Extra Ordinary Pension) Rules, 1939, and other pensionary benefits.
- 5% vacancies reserved in Group “C” for compassionate appointments.
- Under the Prime Minister Scholarship Scheme, an amount of Rs 2,250 per month for girls and Rs 2,000 per month for boys is provided to the wards of deceased.
CAPFs personnel killed in action get ‘Operational Casualty Certificate’ on the line of ‘Battle Casualty Certificate’ as available to the Armed Forces. This apart, many other welfare and service benefits such as “Bharat Ke Veer” contributions are also being facilitated to the next of kin of the deceased’s family.
AFWA spoke to a senior CRPF officer, who on condition of anonymity said, “Let’s not get into the semantics such as “martyr status”, but a soldier who lays his life in battle in any operation is always considered a martyr and the Centre takes good care of the martyr’s family”.
Therefore, it is confirmed that the Facebook post claiming the Centre is insulting deceased CRPF jawans in Bijapur by denying them martyr status is misleading.
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