Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh urged the Centre to grant financial assistance to the family members of Indian hostages killed by the ISIS in Iraq.
Speaking to reporters in Punjab Assembly, Amarinder said his government would try to find jobs for the kin of the deceased and would continue to pay the Rs 20,000 compensation which the families were already being given.
The CM said he would also pursue with the Central government the issue of grant of compensation to the bereaved families. He pointed out that he had written to Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday on the subject and was hopeful of a positive response from the Centre.
In his letter to the Union minister, the CM pointed out that 24 of the deceased hailed from Punjab. While the state government had been providing a monthly assistance of Rs 20,000, he said he would be grateful if the Centre could also give them due assistance, given the special circumstances surrounding the matter.
Amarinder said he has spoken to Union minister of state in the ministry of external affairs, VK Singh, to follow up on the issue of bringing back the mortal remains of the Indian hostages killed by the ISIS in Iraq.
The CM said Singh had informed him that the remains of the deceased would take about a week to reach India. Amainder said, in response to a media query, that since the majority of those killed were from Punjab’s Majha and Doaba regions, the coffins with the remains were likely to arrive in Amritsar.
The state government was making all the necessary arrangements to hand over the remains to the families for the last rites of the deceased victims, he added.