Siliguri, July 7: Sanjay Goyal, the present owner of Sanjay Trading Company, will sit on an indefinite hungerstrike at India Gate in New Delhi demanding that the Border Security Force (BSF) pay up the Rs 1.5 crore that it owes to his family.
The amount is the sum total of the original capital of Rs 83,600.24 and an 18 per cent compound interest added to it annually over the past 33 years.
Goyal’s father, Raj Kumar Agarwal, had in 1971 supplied motor spares to the 73rd battalion of the BSF, which was then posted at Kadamtala during the war with what was then East Pakistan. The 223 bills of the BSF added up to Rs 83,600.24.
Ever since, the Goyals have been writing to the BSF authorities and the headquarters of the 73rd battalion wherever it was posted afterwards, for the money. Goyal visited Jammu, New Delhi, Rajasthan and also Gujarat to reach his plea to the authorities concerned. After running from pillar to post for the past 33 years with his now 60-year-old ailing father, things finally moved for the first time in December last year.
The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) ordered the 73rd battalion of the BSF, now stationed at Dantiwada, Gujarat, to pay the outstanding bill (only the capital amount) to Sanjay Trading Company.
The amount has been sanctioned as ex-post-facto, the money that does not come from the annual budget allocated for the expenses of BSF.
As stated in the MHA notification, the Goyals were asked “to apply to BSF authority and submit an affidavit duly signed by proprietor of the firm and attested by first class magistrate for the permanent settlement of the case on payment of principal amount only”.
But the trader family, which underwent a financial setback after despatching such a huge consignment on credit, refused to accept only the capital amount offered to them.
“My aged father is now bed-ridden with paralysis. He needs treatment. And Rs 83,242 was not an insignificant amount in the early seventies. We have been going through a lot of trouble for the past 33 years. The MHA has ordered to reimburse only the capital amount. But the outstanding due interest for the last 33 years comes to Rs 1.66 crore (at 18% annual compound interest) and loss of gross profit for the same period amounts to Rs 36.84 crore. The amount was calculated by a professional chartered accountancy firm as per the market rate,” said Goyal.
“Now I have decided to begin a fast in Delhi. I am pinning my hopes on the present home ministry, which I hope will consider my plea,” he added.
