In a remarkable gesture, police constables of 2003 batch of the Tamil Nadu Police Department have mobilised ₹25 lakh and made separate deposits for the father, wife and children of one of their colleagues who died recently.
Head constable Jothiram of Madurai was killed in an accident while on duty on June 15. He had left behind his father, wife and two minor girl children.
His batchmates, who had informally formed an association called ‘Uthavaum Karangal’, immediately reached out to the family.
No pension
As many as 5,043 head constables volunteered to contribute ₹500 each to mobilise funds. They were the first batch of police constables in the State who were not eligible for the old pension scheme, as they were under the contributory pension scheme
“Our only concern was that at any point of time, the family members should not suffer because of Jothiram’s absence. To ensure a safe future for the girl children of Jothiram, we first deposited around ₹12 lakh in their names in the LIC,” said one of the members of ‘Uthavaum Karangal’.
The team also deposited ₹7.12 lakh in the name of his wife, Sathya, in another insurance policy that would fetch her a pension of ₹3,300 a month.
They deposited ₹5 lakh in the father’s name which would fetch ₹3,083 a month for 10 years.
The balance of the mobilised funds of ₹34,312 was handed over to the family members on Sunday.
The batchmates also ensured that the wife and children got a medical insurance for ₹3 lakh for three years. This would be renewed at regular intervals.
Similar instance
This is not the first time the batch helped a colleague. Couple of months back, their batchmate Ayyappan of Tenkasi died. Within a few days, the members across the State managed to mobilise ₹15 lakh and handed it over to the family of Ayyappan.
A similar assistance was given to the family of another batchmate from Tiruppattur.