Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced compensation for the families of 14 people and the presiding officer who died during panchayat election in the state.
The family of Rajkumar Roy, the deceased presiding officer of an election booth in Itahar, would be handed over Rs 5 lakh, while the families of the 14 people would receive two lakh rupees each.
Advertisement
Miss Banerjee on Friday spoke to Roy’s wife, Arpita, over telephone and assured her a job. The panchayat polls were held in the state after a protracted legal battle, several incidents of pre-poll violence and after moving to court over security for candidates who wanted to file their nominations.
Miss Banerjee had told in the state secretariat, Nabanna, yesterday that 13 people had died in poll-related violence among which 10 were Trinamul Congress workers.
Even prior to the election, Trinamul Congress MPs had met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum on the violence allegedly unleashed by the BJP.
However, Opposition parties had raised allegations against the ruling party for threatening candidates against filing nominations and then prevented them from campaigning.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation Department of West Bengal Police has taken up a probe into the mysterious death of Roy. In relation to Roy’s death, Miss Banerjee had said: “It was an accident.
The driver of the train himself reported about the accident.” She announced that her government would extend help to Roy’s family. “His family will get compensation from the Railways. But we will also do something, after all he was our officer who was on poll duty and died in an accident. We will stand beside Roy’s family,” Miss Banerjee had told.
Roy, a government school teacher at Rahatpur High Madrasa and a father of two, was a presiding officer of an election booth in Raiganj’s Itahar. Roy had gone missing from the polling booth soon after the polls.
A day later, his mutilated body was found lying on the railway tracks near Sonadangi in North Dinajpur. Roy’s wife, Arpita Barman Roy, lodged a police complaint alleging that her husband was kidnapped from the polling booth and murdered later. She had also demanded a CBI inquiry.
