PUNJAB GOVERNMENT APPROVES SUBSISTENCE ALLOWANCE FOR KIN OF 8 MOSUL TRAGEDY VICTIMS

The Punjab Cabinet led by the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday gave ex-post facto approval for payment of subsistence allowance at 10,000 per month, with effect from 24 October 2019, for family members of eight of the 27 Punjabis killed in Mosul (Iraq) in 2014.

While seven cases of cases relate to the parents of the deceased, one is the wife of Mosul victims who were not eligible for jobs on compassionate grounds under the state policy. The Cabinet also approved the grant of lifetime subsistence allowance to these affected families.

It may be recalled that in the tragic incident, 39 Indians were kidnapped and killed by ISIS in Mosul (Iraq) in 2014. The bodies of the deceased were exhumed and DNA tests were conducted, following which the mortal remains of 27 deceased Indians from Punjab were brought back to Amritsar on 3 April 2018.

The deceased hailed from eight districts, namely Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Sangrur, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur.

On the directives of the Chief Minister, an ex gratia of Rs.5 lac each to 26 dependent family members has already been disbursed from the CM’s Relief Fund, and as per records, one victim from Jalandhar had no legal heir.

The state government has also already employed one dependent family member of each of the victims, as per their educational qualification and government’s policy, besides an ex gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh.

As per information received from the DCs of Amritsar and Kapurthala, seven cases from Amritsar and one case of Kapurthala were not covered under the policy, where job on compassionate grounds could not be provided to the family members as the deceased’s wife rejected the job offer and desired that it may be given to her minor son (now of 11-12 years of age).

However, the Cabinet gave ex-facto approval for grant of monthly subsistence allowance of Rs. 10,000 per month to them from October 24, 2019, and also gave its concurrence for grant of lifetime subsistence allowance to the victim families. The Punjab Cabinet also approved the draft notification of ‘Punjab Victim Compensation (First Amendment) Scheme-2017’.