On January 30, 2020 the Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted to tell everyone about the colossal loss of Kuldeep Kumar Singh, an official of the ministry who sacrificed a lot to prove his dedication towards his work while he was on budget duty. His selfless act tells the story of his courage and sincerity.
"Informing with regret that Shri Kuldeep Kumar Sharma, Dy Manager (Press), lost his father on 26 Jan 2020. Being on Budget duty, he was on job in the lock-in. In spite of his immense loss, Sharma decided not to leave the press area even for a minute," the Finance Ministry said in a tweet.
Kuldeep Kumar Singh who is Deputy Manager (Press), was locked in on January 20, 2020 to print the Union Budget 2020-21. His father died on January 26, 2020. After getting information about this huge loss, he still refused to attend to the cremation rituals of his father and stayed in the press area given the nature of his duty. He ignored his personal loss and showed extraordinary sincerity to his job.
As Budget documents are secret until they are presented in the Parliament by the Union Finance Minister, its printing remains a confidential exercise. The security is quite tight in the North Block basement, where these documents are printed. So much so that the personnel involved in the exercise are not allowed to go out for almost 10 days, from the day printing starts until its presentation. The printing of Budget papers begins with a customary 'halwa' ceremony. It takes place in the presence of the Finance Minister. After that, 'halwa' is distributed among the Finance Ministry staff, those assigned with the printing of the Budget are locked in the basement press area of the North Block.Till the Budget presentation which was scheduled on February 1, 2020; food and lodging arrangements are made inside the North Block. The staff are not allowed to call their family members during this quarantine period.
After the tweet of the Ministry of Finance about such incident, twitter saluted him and prayed for his father’s departed soul.
Author – Satwik Sharma
