Soldiers arrive at a base camp in Siachen

Chandigarh, March 28: He led his men up a treacherous route to capture Pakistan’s Qaid-e-Azam post in Siachen in 1987, inspiring them with his indomitable courage.

Two decades on, Captain Bana Singh is still fighting, for survival.

The only living Param Vir Chakra awardee, Singh receives a paltry Rs 1,500 from the Centre as allowance and Rs 160 from the Jammu and Kashmir government.

“I have only about an acre of land which I till with my bare hands. I have nothing else to fall back on,” he said over phone from his home in Kadyal village, about 3 km from the international border in Jammu’s Ranbir Singh Pura sector.

A surprise recognition came his way last week, when Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal honoured him with Rs 10 lakh. The war hero fought to hold back tears as he received the cheque.

The Punjab government has also bestowed state guest status on him.

Singh is grateful to Badal, but can’t help condemning the indifference with which the country treats most of its soldiers.

“It is a shame that there is no mention of respect or adulation for Indian soldiers in the books that are taught to our children. There is not even a single paragraph on our soldiers, only passing references,” he said.

The post that Singh had captured from Pakistani soldiers was renamed “Bana Post” by the army to honour his achievement.

Singh, however, feels he had only done his duty. “I did what was expected of me.”

On June 24, 1987, the 8th Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry was deployed in Siachen. It found that a large number of Pakistani infiltrators had intruded into the glacier.

Flushing them out was necessary, but difficult. So, a special task force was constituted, and Singh — then a naib subedar — volunteered to join it.

The enemy post was virtually an impregnable glacier fortress with ice walls, 457 metres high, on either side. But Singh took the lead, crawling through the hazardous stretch and closing in on the enemy.

Lobbing hand grenades, charging with a bayonet and moving from trench to trench, he and his army succeeded in clearing the post of all intruders.

At the time of the Kargil War, Singh was the only Param Vir Chakra winner still serving in the army.

Compared to freedom fighters, gallantry winners get peanuts. A Param Vir Chakra awardee gets Rs 1,500 every month, Mahavir Chakra Rs 1,200, Ashok Chakra Rs 1,400, Kirti Chakra Rs 1,050, Victoria Cross Rs 850 and Shaurya Chakra Rs 750.

Category A and Category B freedom fighters receive Rs 11,581 and Rs 10,190, respectively, every month.