PES students to lend helping hand to martyrs’ families – Deccan Herald

Students from PES University will extend medical and legal assistance to the families of around 15 army martyrs across Karnataka this year. Samarpana, a student group dedicated to honour these martyrs has come up with the initiative. As part of Samarpana’16, this year a charity marathon themed ‘Run with the Jawans’ was organised in the City on Sunday. Kunal Pamami, a student involved with the group, said: “We want to create awareness about the sacrifices of these jawans. Since 2009, we have organised the event for around 60 families where we will be conducting medical and legal camps on matters related to pensions and other grievances.” The objective of the marathon, according to the students, was to bridge the gap between civilians and jawans by helping the former realise the hardship and sacrifices a jawan experiences in his life. As many as 400 jawans and 200 civilians participated in the marathon. There were two categories in the marathon – 5 km and another of 10 km. “A 60-year-old former ISRO scientist and a woman who completed the 10-km mar-athon with her baby in a pram were some of the main highlights of the marathon,” said Kunal. Samarpana has been previously attended by dignitaries like Kargil veteran and gallantry award winner, Major Ashok Sharma and father of the late Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. Samarpana will also felicitate the martyrs’ families as part of a two-day festival to be held in April.