Slain jourlist's kin rue government apathy

tiol Press Day today

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Nov 15: On the eve of the 59th tiol Press Day, which will be observed tomorrow across the state, along with the rest of the Country, the family members of late jourlist Jagajit Saikia, who was killed by suspected militants on November 22 in 2008 in Kokrajhar, today lamented the State Government’s apathy towards the sorry plight of the family members of the jourlists, who were killed or injured in miscreants’ attacks over the years. 

Family sources of late jourlist Saikia said that even though the Chief Minister assured to provide a job to his wife Gita Prasad Saikia after his killing, she has not got the job till today.   

The death of Saikia, who was the only breadwinner of the family, has left the members of the family including his wife in a miserable condition.  Besides his parents and wife, Sakia had left behind a two-year-old daughter and a brother. 

“After the murder of Saikia, a team of jourlists from Assam Press Correspondents’ Union (APCU) had met Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi seeking a fincial assistance to the family and a government a job for Saikia’s wife Gita. The Chief Minister on November 25, 2008 had assured the team that a sum of Rs 3 lakh will be given to the family as ex-gratia and a government job will be provided to Gita. However, though the amount of Rs 3 lakh was provided, the job has not been provided till date despite APCU office-bearers as well as Gita herself approached him several times,” said family sources.

 The sources said that even AGP legislator Phanibhushan Choudhury also wrote a letter to CM about the matter.

 “Chief Minister had subsequently instructed the Chief Secretary to look into the matter after which chief secretary instructed the Personnel department to do the needful. However, Personnel department on September 20, 2014, wrote a letter to deputy Commissioner of Kokrajhar to provide a job on compensation ground but the Kokrajhar DC passed the matter to BTC,” added the sources.

“Gita moved around all these government offices to get a permanent settlement to run her family but nothing came out. Gita, who is an arts graduate, has to struggle a lot to run the family. Currently she is working in a private school at a nomil salary, which is not sufficient to run her family,” said a family member. 

Jagajit Saikia is just an example. Since 1991, as many as 24 jourlists in Assam were killed by unidentified miscreants and suspected militants but the family members of these jourlists have not got justice till today. Many of them even not got any healing touch from the government.

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