State govt hands over Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia each to victim families

Within a few hours of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement, the District Magistrate and other administrative officials, on Friday afternoon, visited the houses of the victim families in Chopra and handed over cheques of Rs 2 lakh each ex-gratia.

Previously, the district Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders as per the instructions of the state TMC committee gave Rs 3 lakh to each of the families. Later, Bengal Governor also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh each to the victim families.

Surendra Kumar Meena, District Magistrate of North Dinajpur said: “The Chief Minister announced Rs 2 lakh to each victim’s family from the state government for their financial support. We have handed over this cheque to all four families. We also have assured them of all cooperation in the near future.”

Both Hamidul Rahaman and Kanaiyalal Agarwal, MLA Chopra and chairman of Islampur Municipality respectively were present with the District Magistrate.

Incidentally, four children died in a mudslide in a high drain at Chetnagach in Daspara, close to Indo-Bangladesh Border in North Dinajpur district on February 12 morning.

A high drain was allegedly being expanded with a JCB machine close to the border road and fell in the jurisdiction of the BSF. The deceased include Golam Mustafa (5), Yusuf Ali (6), Mohammad Islam (6) and Taleb Ali (12).

The TMC leaders have also been on a sit-in protest since that day demanding punishment for the accused BSF officials and adequate compensation to the families from BSF.

Samirul Islam, father of a dead child said: “Both TMC leaders and state government provided us financial support in our difficulties. We thank our Chief Minister because she understood our difficulties but BSF officials who were responsible for the deaths have not met us yet.”