Pune: Neel Chitale, a nine-year-old was the youngest participant who narrated the story of Capt Manoj Pandey, the Kargil war hero at the competition organised by Paramheet organisation to spread awareness about war heroes and the Indian armed forces.

Apart from him Nishta Phadke, Anjor Khopade, Sanika Keskar, Gaurav Kadam, Chandrama Jadhav and Shri Madhav Gokhale won the competition for the presentation of the bravery tales held on January 24 at MES auditorium, Kothrud.

All of them narrated stories of PVC winners such as Capt Vikram Batra, Lt Col AB Tarapore, Naik Jadunath Singh and ASI Tukaram Ombale who won Ashok Chakra during 29/11 Mumbai attack. Their presentations were so captivating and enthralling that all of them were declared winners. About 30 participants from different categories participated from different parts of Maharashtra. After the preliminary round, seven participants were selected for making a presentation at the function.

Anil Talwalkar, winner of Sena Medal and the chief guest said, “It is a pity that people are ignorant about 21 heroes of our nation who have been awarded ParamVeer Chakra and the main reason is neither people from Army have come forward nor the general public have shown any interes. I congratulate Paramheet for taking up this initiative and giving an opportunity for young students to study and narrate the stories of these brave soldiers.”