CM clears air on delay in paying ex-gratia
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, February 24 2023: Chief Minister N Biren informed the assembly on Friday that the entitled compensation for the two IRB personnel, who died after getting shot by another rifleman while on duty for the Gujarat Assembly election, will be processed as per ECI rules.

Responding to a calling attention motion raised by Congress MLA Sur-jakumar Okram over delay in providing compensation to the personnel who lost their lives while on election duty, during the third session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly on Friday, CM Biren said that that the incident occurred due to lack of discipline on part of an armed personnel, in addition to working against professional ethics.

As such, all of us must work while maintaining our professional ethics.

The shooting incident, which occurred while the personnel were on election duty in Gujarat, was unfortunate.

While 3IRB havildar Thiyam Thoiba died instantly, rifleman Khumanthem Jiten succumbed to injuries at the hospital.

Rifleman L Surjit sustained serious injuries.

While he was recuperating at a hospital in Gujarat, the Manipur government bore the expenses of Rs 72,000 including booking a ticket for a family member, who could take care for him at the hospital.

After this, he was brought to Guwahati for further treatment but unfortunately, he passed away recently.

Another Rifleman Roshnikanta, who was also injured in the incident, has recovered fully and is now back on duty.

Biren continued that the ECI has already given ex-gratia of Rs 15 lakh each to the deceased personnel's family.

Initially, it was believed that L Surjit will not die but become differently-abled and as such, ECI had begun the process of extending com pensation of Rs 7.5 lakh, normally given in case of disability.

However, Surjit died while the compensation was being processed.

Thus, the CM assured of initiating the process of amending the compen sation process to that of deceased personnel who died on duty, as per ECI rules, while expressing firm belief that the process will be successful.

In addition, the surviving families of the deceased personnel will either be awarded service pension or given a job (only one member of the family), Biren assured, while informing that the decision in this regard lies at the hands of the family.

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