Telangana Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao visited the family members of Colonel Santosh Babu on Monday to console the bereaved family and hand over the assistance – including a Rs five crore reward - he had announced for them.
Babu, the commanding officer of the 16th Bihar Regiment, died along with 19 others last Monday night in a violent clash with the Chinese troops, along the LAC in Ladakh.
CM Rao went to Babu’s house in Vidyanagar in Suryapet town of Telangana and paid tributes to the slain Colonel. Babu’s mortal remains were consigned to flames on Thursday near Suryapet, with full military honors.
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Rao consoled Col Babu’s wife Santoshi, his parents Bikkumalla Manjula and Upendar, sister Sruthi. The CM also chatted with Babu’s children Abhignya (8), Anirudh Teja (4).
The CM personally handed over the letter appointing Santoshi as a Group-I officer in Telangana government. He also handed over the documents allotting 711 Square Yards of a house site in the Banjara Hills of Hyderabad to Santoshi. The CM handed a cheque of Rs four crore to Santoshi and Rs one crore to Babu’s parents.
The CM hailed the Colonel “for sacrificing his valuable life for the wellbeing of the country” and told the family that Babu’s death has made him very disturbed. He assured that the Telangana state would stand by the Colonel’s family at all times.
CM also told the family members that they could contact him whenever they need anything, CMO officials said adding that the CM had urged local minister Jagadish Reddy to be supportive of the family.
Rao had also announced that the Telangana government would provide Rs 10 lakh each for the other 19 martyred army men in the Galwan incident, through the Union Defense Ministry.
In the all-party video conference last week with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the border issue, Rao suggested the PM to pursue short- and long-term strategies to counter China’s aggression. Rao, chief of the TRS, also committed to stand by the central government. “What we require now is Ran-neeti (war strategy), not Raj-neeti (politicization of the issue),” the CM said.
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