Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for martyr's families

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, July 26: In a move which will benefit the families of martyrs of Assam Agitation, the State government has formulated a draft policy of rehabilitation of such families under which an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh will be paid per family.

As per earlier rules, an ex-gratia of Rs 30,000 was given to the families of Assam Agitation martyrs and a few members of the martyrs’ families were given government jobs.

In his budget speech, State Fince Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The Assam Agitation was not only an agitation for saving the State from the aggression of foreigners, it was also an agitation to protect the sovereignty and integrity of the country. During the agitation, many young people sacrificed their lives for the sake of their motherland. No amount of monetary award or recognition can be compared with the sacrifices of these martyrs. However, as a token of appreciation, we propose to pay one-time ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh per family of the martyrs of Assam Agitation. I propose a budgetary allocation of Rs 30 crore in this budget,” adding, “the government will also think of giving government jobs to a member of each victim’s family and a draft policy will be framed soon in this regard.”

It may be mentioned here that higher amount of ex-gratia and government job are the long pending demands of the martyrs’ families.

Sarma further said, “We have also decided to construct a memorial and park in honour of these martyrs. This memorial will be known as Swahid Khetra. For this, I propose to allot Rs 100 lakhs as an initial amount.”

On the NRC and Foreigners Tribuls issue, the State Fince Minister said, “The government wishes to convey that the ongoing exercise to update the tiol Register of Citizens (NRC) is the number one priority for the State government. The Chief Minister of Assam is persolly monitoring the NRC update process wherein the NRC data is expected to be published within the current fincial year. I propose to allocate Rs 24,932 lakh from the State budget.”

Sarma further stated that the State government would give priority to support and strengthen the functioning of Foreigners Tribuls in the State in order to fulfill the constitutiol duty in both letter and spirit.

On the border issue, he said, “Border protection is a top priority for our government. We are happy to note that 99.97% of fencing works has already been completed. The remaining 0.03% (60 meters) work is targeted to be completed within December, 2016.”