Slain cop Vijay Salaskar’s daughter Divya with her mother Smita in Mumbai in 2009

Mumbai, July 21: The martyr’s daughter is happy to have got the promised job, but it took the government two-and-a-half years and a chance encounter to keep its word.

Divya Salaskar, whose father Vijay Salaskar was gunned down when he and some other policemen raced to tackle the 26/11 terrorists, is set to walk into the sales tax headquarters in Mumbai as assistant commissioner.

“I haven’t received the appointment letter yet, but I am happy to get the job. The government has kept its word,” the 26-year-old told The Telegraph.

The Maharashtra government yesterday confirmed the appointment but not before Union home minister P. Chidambaram had a word with chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.

Chidambaram, who had bumped into Divya at a television studio about a couple of weeks back, was surprised to learn that she hadn’t got a job though the government had promised one to a member of each 26/11 martyr’s family.

“I promised her that I would take up the matter with the chief minister of Maharashtra and request him to persuade the Public Service Commission to expedite the case,” the Union home minister said in a statement from Delhi.

Chavan phoned Chidambaram this morning and told him Divya’s appointment had been cleared.

Divya has a master’s degree in human resource management from the University of West Minster and a bachelor’s degree in economics from DG Ruparel College in Mumbai.

“In 2009, I travelled to London to complete my degree. I had asked for this job, and I am happy that I have got it. I received a call from (state secretariat) Mantralaya yesterday informing me that I could collect the appointment letter after submitting my educational certificates and a medical certificate,” she said.

After the November 2008 attack, the government had promised a job, a house and compensation in cash to the families of those who died battling the terrorists. It also gave the families the option of a petrol pump, CNG or LPG dealership.

“My family decided to choose a CNG dealership. It has been allotted to us. A house promised to us has also been allotted at Lokhandwala Complex in Andheri, but since we stay in our own house, we have not moved there,” said Divya, who lives with her mother and grandmother in Goregaon.

Salaskar was among 15 policemen and two NSG commandos killed during the 26/11 siege. The 1983-batch officer rose from the ranks to become senior inspector at the crime branch and was among a group of “encounter specialists” who took on the Mumbai underworld. Between 1998 and 2001, these officers gunned down nearly 300 members of the Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Arun Gawli and Amar Naik gangs which controlled the underworld.

Known as a street-smart and fearless officer who diligently collected intelligence on the movements of underworld operatives, Salaskar was summoned from his Goregaon home on 26/11 night. He was first asked to go to Colaba police station and then told to rush to Cama Hospital.

Salaskar was at the wheel of the Toyota Qualis carrying Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare and additional commissioner Ashok Kamte when Ajmal Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive, and his accomplice gunned them down.

It took two years for the petroleum ministry, then headed by Murli Deora, to allot petrol pump dealerships to Kamte’s widow Vinita and others in November last year.

No senior official in the Maharashtra government could say for sure if houses and dealerships had been allotted to every martyr family.