A critically ill Laxmi, 75, who was an INA member, gets her due on her deathbed after a six-decade wait.
CUTTACK: She cherished for it for six decades but the freedom fighter status for Indian National Army (INA) member Laxmi Panda seems to come too late as the octogenarian is critically ill.
Battling with her life for the past 15 days at the SCB Medical College Hospital here, Laxmi, 75, received without much elation the news that president Pratibha Patil has recognised her as a freedom fighter and also sanctioned her a grant of pension under the Swatantra Sainik Samman Pension Scheme.
Named as Indira by none other than INA founder Subhash Chandra Bose, Laxmi had been struggling for the six decades to get this honour of being called a freedom fighter but it was eluding her for the simple reason that she was not jailed at any point of time during the freedom struggle.
But now, besides that recognition, she will also get a monthly pension of Rs300 on provisional basis with effect from August 1980 and with revised rates in addition to dearness relief at rates admissible from time to time to the INA freedom fighters, said a release issued by the Union home ministry.
President Patil has also directed the Orissa government to make arrangements for shifting the ailing freedom fighter to New Delhi for treatment at AIIMS. But Laxmi is now indisposed as she is critically ill.
Doctors treating her have advised not to shift her at this stage as her condition is very serious. She is suffering from hemipligia, a form of cerebral disease, said BN Mohapatra, who is supervising her treatment.
A team of doctors comprising specialists from neurosurgery, neurology, cardiology, hematology and nephrology are now monitoring her health in every six hours, hospital sources said.
The state health department has directed the hospital authorities that the entire
cost of Laxmi s treatment would be borne by the state government.
Even the hospital has deployed some experienced staff in the ICU to ensure that all clinical tests of the freedom fighter are carried out without any delay or hassle.
Laxmi was one of the youngest members of INA and perhaps the only Oriya woman to have enlisted the famed force which fought valiantly against the British. She was orphaned at an early age as her parents were killed by the British while they were working in Burma.
Like Laxmi, her brother Nakul Rath was also a member of INA but he disappeared in Burma War and there is no news of him till date.
In 1951, Laxmi married Khageswar Panda of Berhampur who was working as a driver. But after his death in 1976, Laxmi’s trouble began and penury became an overriding factor.
She worked as a store helper, a daily wage earner and as a domestic help to bring up her children.
