12 August,2010 07:53 AM IST | | Kaumudi Gurjar
5 fire brigade officers who won President's medal not given revised allowance
Five real-life heroes from the city's fire brigade, who risked their lives to save three girls trapped inside the National Chemical laboratory (NCL) in 2003, are yet to receive the special allowance they were promised.
These officers were honoured with President's medal in 2006 and promised a special allowance. But the Pune Municipal Corporation is yet to disburse it.
The Fire Brigade Officers including then CFO L N Raut and his team consisting of Tukaram Shankar Bhilare (Station Duty Officer), Eknath Jagannath Phanase, firemen Sunil Sopan Devkar and Subhash Prabhakar Jadhav received the medals at a ceremony, in Rajbhavan, Mumbai. President's office had then announced that these officers would get a monthly special allowance of Rs 450.
The allowance was revised in 2009 and a notification was issued that said each one would be entitled to Rs 900.
A year after, the notification is still on paper. During this period three officers including Raut, Bhilare, Phanase retired from service recently.
MiD DAY contacted former CFO L N Raut, who said they had not received their revised allowance. "The Central Fire Advisory had written a letter to State Fire Advisory in April 2010. They then delegated the matter to the respective fire brigade offices, but we are still waiting for the allowance."
When contacted the two serving officers refused to comment.
The present CFO Prashant Ranpise said he was not aware of the matter.
"Instead of going to media, the officers should have contacted me," he said. Ranpise said that he had taken charge in December 2009 and the notification by the President's office was issued much earlier to him.
