THRISSUR: Sreelakshmi, wife of the Junior Warrant Officer (JWO) in Indian Air Force, Pradeep Arakkal, who died in the helicopter crash, has joined duty at the taluk office in Thrissur in the clerical cadre on Monday. Apart from Pradeep, several others including, the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, died in the crash on Dec 8.
Revenue minister K Rajan, district collector Haritha V Kumar and several others had come to the taluk office to hand over the appointment order to Sreelakshmi.
Rajan said the cabinet had decided to provide employment to Sreelakshmi, an MCom degree holder, within a week after the chopper crash, as a mark of respect to the departed IAF official. The district sainik welfare board had issued the related notification within one-and-a-half months of the crash. The collector then expedited formalities of posting and submitted the report to the government within a week. Government is happy that it could provide employment to Sreelakshmi within two months of the crash, he said.
Sreelakshmi also expressed gratitude to the government for providing her employment quickly. Rajan pointed out that the law provides for giving employment to close dependent of a military person who is killed in war or war-like situations. However, government decided to treat Pradeep’s death as a special case and provided employment to his wife, Rajan said. TNN
