KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday came under fire in the social media for announcing 'meagre' compensation to two army men from Bengal who were killed in Uri attack.
Mamata Banerjee had announced compensation of Rs 2 lakh for kin of jawans Sepoy Gangadhar Dolui and Sepoy Biswajit Gorai and jobs of homeguard to one member each of the two families.
This led to a scathing attack by the twitterati on the West Bengal CMO official handle MamataOfficial with #MartyrsNotBeggars hashtag, comparing the compensation with that given to hooch tragedy victims 5 years ago and Haj stampede victims a year ago.
Over 150 persons who died after consuming spurious liquor in 2011 in South 24 Parganas district, a few months after ascendancy of Mamata Banerjee to the hot seat in West Bengal, were also given Rs 2 lakh as compensation while Hajis from West Bengal who died in stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia last year were given Rs 10 lakh.
The twitterati compared the Rs 10 lakh compensation to the kin of the deceased Hajis with the Rs 2 lakh to kin of the Uri martyrs, saying the difference and discrimination shows how politically-driven aid announcements are made by the West Bengal Chief Minister.
They also raised questions whether the hooch tragedy victims and the martyrs deserve equal treatment in terms of compensation to kin.
BJP leader Rahul Mahajan has proposed that Swacch Bharat Tax be removed with Jawan Insurance Tax and that insurance to jawans be increased to Rs 1 crore.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar increased the compensation to the Uri martyrs from the state from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 11 lakh after outrage by civil society and statements by kin of the martyrs ridiculing the meagre aid.
Both the fathers of the martyred soldiers from Bengal are daily wage earners and their sons were the only major source of income in their families.