Govt pulled up for not honouring promise to kin of martyred officer

Not allotting plot to slain officer’s family was disrespecting his martyrdom: HC

It was shame that State government failed to provide the promised plot to the family of a martyred IFS officer even nearly 12 years after his death, Telangana High Court Chief Justice Hima Kohli said on Tuesday. Observing that not finalising the allotment of plot to the officer’s family amounted to disrespecting his martyrdom, the CJ instructed the government to ensure the officer’s family secured the plot immediately. A division bench comprising the CJ and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy was hearing contentions of government over a letter written by the martyred officer V. Venkateshwar Rao’s wife Malathi Rao. The letter was taken up as PIL petition by the HC. Mr. Rao, an IFS officer of 1990 batch working as diplomat in Afghanistan, was killed in a terror attack outside his office in Kabul in 2008. On May 23, 2014, the then undivided Andhra Pradesh State government issued a GO allotting a plot of 475 square yards in Jubilee Hills to Mr. Rao’s family.