Twitter spews venom at Mamata, Nitish after 'paltry' compensation to Uri martyrs

Kolkata: Stung by the paltry compensation offered to the martyrs of the Uri attack, angry twitterati took to the micro-bloging site on Thursday to express their discontentment with the West Bengal and the Bihar government.

Four JeM terrorists had attacked an Indian Army base in Uri sector of J&K on Sunday killing 18 soldiers. The terrorists were also eliminated.

The Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the martyrs, while her counterpart in Bihar, Nitish Kumar, announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh.

The announcement had triggered outrage among family members of the martyrs and the general public. Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Onkarnath Dolui from West Bengal, father of Uri martyr Gangadhar Dolui said, “The compensation amounts to sheer humiliation. The government has offered us Rs 2 lakh, the amount that it offers to the families of persons who die after consuming hooch. We will reject the money as well as the offer for a home guard’s job that will be offered to my younger son.”

The family members of the other martyr Biswajit Ghorai did not comment on the issue, and said that they have still not recovered from their loss.

Lashing out at the Bihar chief minister for the compensation, Sangeeta Devi, the wife of Havaldar Ashok Kumar Singh, said, “We are not beggars who need peanuts from the government. We are self-sufficient. Nitish Kumar should be ashamed of what he is giving us. A common man in the state who dies in an accident gets Rs 4 lakh compensation. My husband is a martyr. I don't need Nitish Kumar's financial assistance."

Soon enough tweets expressing outrage at the ridiculously low compensation started pouring out in Twitter, with the hashtag ‘MartyrsNotBeggars’ trending in the social media platform.

Wondering the rationale behind the allocated sum, many drew attention to the fact that Mamata had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh for the family of Mecca crane crash victim last year.  

Other states that declared the compensation for the martyrs include Uttar Pradesh (Rs 20 lakh), Maharashtra (Rs 15 lakh) and Jharkhand (Rs 10 lakh).