House site pattas handed over to families of Balimela martyrs after 18-year wait

Telangana Director General of Police B. Shivadhar Reddy on Tuesday (March 17) handed over house site pattas to the families of police personnel who were killed in the 2008 Balimela reservoir attack, marking the end of a prolonged wait for rehabilitation benefits promised to the martyrs’ kin.

At a programme held at the State police headquarters in Lakdikapul, title deeds were distributed to 33 beneficiary families of personnel who lost their lives in the Maoist attack on June 29, 2008. The attack, carried out near Chitrakonda in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, resulted in the deaths of 38 people, including 32 Greyhounds commandos, after Maoists targeted a police launch with gunfire and grenades, causing it to sink.