Govt yet to release ex gratia for families of Uri martyrs

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 17

Even after passing of one year, the PDP-BJP coalition government has not sanctioned even a single penny as ex gratia to the families of the Uri martyrs belonging to the state.

Eighteen soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn terror attack in the Uri area of Baramulla district on September 18, 2016. Among the 17 martyrs, Subedar Karnail Singh and Havildar Ravi Pal belonged to the Jammu region.

Amid worldwide condemnation of the attack, governments in other parts of the country had announced and sanctioned ex gratia for martyrs of their respective states but in the J&K Government is still busy in “processing” the compensation files.

“The process has been completed, very soon ex gratia would be sanctioned in favour of Geeta Devi, wife of martyr Havildar Ravi Pal,” Deputy Commissioner, Samba, Sheetal Nanda, told The Tribune when he was asked about the status of the compensation process.

About the inordinate delay in sanctioning the relief, the Deputy Commissioner cited paucity of funds. “Now the file is with the Home Department and hopefully compensation would be sanctioned within a couple of days.”

“Not even a single promise has been fulfilled by the government,” said Raj Kumar, elder brother of Ravi Pal. Raj Kumar said the authorities had made a number of promises after the attack but all these remained only on paper.

While the officers are giving the excuse of “financial crunch” for not sanctioning the compensation to the families of Uri martyrs, the coalition had recently appointed appointed 16 middle-rung leaders of the PDP and BJP as vice-chairpersons of various public sector undertakings that are running into huge losses.

These leaders are entitled of a monthly salary of Rs 80,000 besides hefty perks and allowances.

The BJP, which is an equal partner in the government, had announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the two martyrs on its own but the party ministers in the coalition have so far failed to get compensation sanctioned from the government.