Click to play videoNew Delhi: SK Nayyar is a citizen who fought the brazen red tapism and corruption and made sure he didn't pay a single paisa as bribe to get a petrol pump that was awarded to his son posthumously.
"It's not easy when a citizen is an individual and the weight of the bureaucracy is heavy. He cracks down very easily and is forced to go for compromises. You make one compromise and you are asked to make nine more. You either stand or you crack or you die," says Nayyar.
Nayyar didn't crack and stood tall as he fought against an insensitive system to get what was meant to be a tribute to his martyr son, Anuj Nayyar.
A young Captain in the Indian Army, Anuj was 24 when he made the supreme sacrifice. He was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, posthumously. With the bravery medal, came the allotment letter of a petrol pump.
Claiming the pump that came as a memory of his son was never going to be easy, but Nayyar had never imagined that it was going to be this tough - it took not one, not two, but innumerable visits to every possible Goverrnment office.
"The struggle of Kargil was one part. The struggle of Kargil Heights (petrol pump) was another. In the Kargil struggle, the might of the Indian Army was there to support, that was one war, but in the other war of Kargil Heights, there was no back-up," says Nayyar.
Years after the pump was alloted, Nayyar and his wife were still getting permissions from the Delhi Vidyut Board, the DDA and the Delhi Police.
A system which was used to bribes, delays and red tapism, was at times shocked to see an honest citizen hoping to get this petrol pump without paying bribes.
There were times when he was even asked to prove that he was the father of Late Capt Anuj Nayyar. But just like his son, Nayyar never gave up.
Today, Kargil Heights stands tall, not just as a tribute to a martyred soldier, but as a symbol of a citizen's victory. "For me, the struggle against the might of bureaucracy is perpetual. Earlier, it was to set the pump, then to run the pump, then it was to tell people that I am SK Nayyar," he says.
The battle that started in 1999, only continues. The only meaning in his life continues to be Anuj, a book in his son's name, and a visit to this school named after his son.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
