Dinesh Kamath's column on 'Inside Navi Mumbai' (7) (A Navi Mumbaikar’s fantastic feat) that was published in Newsband

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Inside Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

A Navi Mumbaikar’s fantastic feat

Prakash R Deshmukh has done not only Navi Mumbai but also India proud. He rightly deserved the President of India’s Gallantry Award which was conferred on him on 20 December 2012 at the 66th Annual Day celebration of Maharashtra Home Guards and Civil Defense Corps held at the Civil Defense Staff College grounds near Metro Cinema. Deshmukh is also a member of the executive committee of NGO ‘Freedom For You Foundation’.

Deshmukh is the man who as the leader of five member team had entered Taj Hotel on 26/11 when the Pakistanis lay siege of the Hotel, and sprayed bullets on the inmates for more than 36 hours and rescued alive over 28 civilians alive. All the five members have been deservedly awarded President's Gallantry Award for their bravery.

Now who can say that Deshmukh did not deserve this award? He put his own life in danger to rescue the lives of those people who were in the clutches of those horrible terrorists who had seized the Hotel. The fact that he rescued 28 civilians proves his enormous skill in tackling such critical situation.

In fact, Deshmukh is very well trained in handling situations of such types. After all, he is the Head of Mobile Column, a specialized fire-fighting unit of Government of Maharashtra, which is expected to rush to the place of any calamity/incident, not only to fight the fire, but its first duty is to rescue all the civilians to a safe zone and administer first-aid. This unit is a part of Civil Defense. The same unit also had rushed to Mantralaya when the fire engulfed it a few months ago.

This is not the first award that Deshmukh has received. In fact, in 2002, Prakash Deshmukh was also conferred Meritorious Service Award on 26 January 2002, by President of India.

On 20 December 2012, the Gallantry Award was given on behalf of President of India by Mr Surinder Kumar, Deputy Commandent, Maharashtra Home Guards and Civil Defense Corp and this function was attended by all unit heads of Home Guards and Civil Defense.

It is a thing of pride for all Navi Mumbaikars that Prakash Deshmukh is a resident of Airoli, Navi Mumbai.

Deshmukh has over 38 years of rich experience in the field of fire-fighting and Rescue operations, Civil Defense etc. He is always helping people with a smile. He is well respected by all, more so by the entire unit of Civil Defense, Government of Maharashtra and Fire Brigade units in MMR Region (Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad regions)

Just before retirement, less than two years ago, he was head of Thane Division of Civil Defense Department, as Senior Dy Controller; all units of Civil Defence located in Thane, Navi Mumbai, Dombivli, Kalyan,  Ambernath, Badlapur etc reported to him. He has trained over 30000 people in Civil Defense during his tenure as Head of Thane Division of Civil Defense.

He has rich experience in Personnel and Occupational Safety, Fire fighting, detecting un-exploded bombs, water and flood rescue operations, rescue of survivors from earthquake affected crumbled buildings, disaster management etc and has been conducting training programs continuously for corporate executives, schools and colleges, workers and to the general public.

Now, as Executive Committee Member of the NGO ‘Freedom For You Foundation’, he is head of Resource Team for Skill development. He and his team train Corporate executives, workers and staff in Fire-Fighting, Mock Drill for evacuation, First-Aid/CPR, Industrial safety training etc. Besides, they conduct free Disaster Management Awareness programs for Schools/Colleges, and over 17000 children and teachers have benefited from this program. A few of these programs have been sponsored by big organizations.

Who said that heroes like Deshmukh are only found on cinema screen? Deshmukh is a real life hero and it would be an insult for him to be compared with screen hero. In real life, rarely do you find a hero who will risk his own life and negotiate the heavily-armed terrorists just to rescue the innocent civilians whom they have held as hostages. He could have lost his life like some other unlucky heroes. But the fact that he survived proves that he is not only a brilliant attacker but also a powerful defender. A genuine hero needs to have both these qualities and Deshmukh proved that he possessed both attacking and defending abilities.

Our country requires more such people like Deshmukh. If our entire Indian army was made up of soldiers like Deshmukh then no country in the world would dare to challenge India. I personally feel that Deshmukh should be sent to the borders to train the Indian army. The members of the Indian army can certainly learn from him both attacking and defending tactics whenever they are confronted by dangerous enemies like the one Deshmukh had negotiated at Taj Hotel.    

Deshmukh deserves a tight salute from not only Navi Mumbaikars but also the entire Indians for the kind of bravery he displayed on 26/11. He will always remain an inspiration not only for the present generation but also many generations to come.