Civil Society urges Mayor to honour legendry Dogra martyrs, submits petition

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: More than 120 prominent citizens of Jammu have urged Mayor, Chander Mohan Gupta to consider and evolve an institutionalised system of honouring martyrs, especially brave Dogra warriors who have given supreme sacrifices to thwart evil designs of anti-national elements and their unparalleled gallantry was recognised by Govt of India by awarding country’s highest gallantry awards.
Presented to Mayor on behalf of citizens by K B Jandial IAS (Retd), the petition regretted that nation including Dogra bastion Jammu has not done justice to these martyrs despite their supreme sacrifices to save J&K in 1947-48, that got them India’s first highest gallantry award of Param Vir Chakra & second highest award of Maha Vir Chakra. The petition mentioned three proud martyrs Maj Somnath Sharma, Brig Rajinder Singh and Brig Mohd Usman, whose contributions and supreme sacrifice in foiling Pakistan first aggression on J&K cannot be forgotten. All of them have exhibited exceptional courage, valour and leadership qualities, ‘seldom equaled in history of Indian Army’.
The Mayor appreciated the initiative of civil society and assured to do full justice these martyrs in near future in a structured way.
On behalf of Jammu Civil Society, the petition urged the Mayor and through him the Jammu Municipal Corporation to consider honouring them by way of naming roads and rotaries after them and erection of life- size statues in Jammu.
The petition also sought establishment of an appropriate Museum of Warriors who are recipient of gallantry awards including living Dogra legends like Capt Bana Singh, where saga of each of them is projected. It suggested constitution of a Committee of Experts comprising army veterans, historians, educationists to run this Museum. The Committee should also consider other Dogras for such honour whose contributions in social justice are unparalleled & path breaking.
The signatories (online in view of COVID pandemic) to petition included Justice V K Gupta & Justice Parmod Kohli, Justice K K Gupta, Justice S K Gupta, Justice Sunil Hali, S S Bloeria, Vijay Bakaya, B R Kundal, former DGPs Kuldeep Khoda & Ashok Bhan; former FC & Member CVC, R K Jerath, Prof Ashok Aima, U K Jalali, Dr Sudarshan Kumar, Gulchain Singh Charak, Gen Goverdhan Singh Jamwal, Brig M M Choudhary, Brig Anil Gupta, Col Shiv Choudhary, Prof Lalit Magotra, Ved Parkash Sharma, Ramesh Mahajan, Jugal Mahajan; S S Wazir, J K Vaid, Dr H L Goswami, P P Sharma, S D Swatantra, C M Seth, B D Sharma, Surinder Mahajan, Dr B B Gupta, Dr S K Gupta, Dr Yudhvir Gupta, Dr Rajinder Singh, Dr Rakesh Khajuria, Dr Yogeshwar Gupta, Dr Mohinder Gupta, Dr D V Gupta, C L Banal, Prem Gupta, Ashok Gupta, Yoginder Koul, Ravinder Kotwal, M A Anjum, A S Bali, I C Jandial, Lalit Mengi, S K Gupta, J P S Johar, M M Gupta, Vinod Sharma, C L Bhushan, J S Sudan, Vinod Malhotra, C L Koul, O P Dogra, Pawan Jain, Y V Sharma, Prem Dewan, Mohinder Gupta, Deepak Gupta, Anil Modi, Ashok Puri, Shiv Pratap Gupta, Yug Raj Gupta, Subash Rekhi and Inderjeet Khajuria.