Tripura govt gives jobs to kin of 18 people killed in political violence before 2018
The Tripura government has provided jobs to 18 people whose family members were killed in political violence in the state before 2018, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath said in Agartala on Saturday.
The minister said 39 petitions were submitted to the scrutiny committee, and 18 people were offered jobs in various departments. Nath is the chairman of the scrutiny committee, which also comprises the law secretary, secretary of information and cultural affairs, an inspector general of police, and the additional secretary of the home department.
'Another meeting of the committee was held on June 19. We got eight more petitions, and five of the names were recommended. We are reviewing the remaining petitions,' the minister told reporters at the Civil Secretariat.
'We give due respect to democracy. We feel that supporting the family members of those who were killed in political violence is our moral duty. Our government has not shown any discrimination on the basis of political affiliations in this case,' he said.
The BJP-led coalition government first came to power in the state in 2018, unseating the erstwhile CPI(M)-led Left Front government which had ruled the state for 25 consecutive years.
Criticising the previous government, Nath said, 'Several political murders happened before 2018 during the earlier government's tenure. Murders and political violence are not healthy for democracy. If it happens, it is a failure and embarrassment for shame for the government'.
He, however, could not give an exact figure of the political murders that purportedly occurred prior to 2018. 'Petitions received are of cases from different years like 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1998,1981, 2015, 2016, 2017…,' he said.
Nath added that those who wish to apply under the scheme should collect forms from the sub-divisional magistrates' offices. These applications will be assessed by the committee based on inputs shared by district magistrates and superintendents of police. 'If the names are approved by the committee, it will be forwarded to the Finance Department, and based on vacancies in different departments, they will be given jobs,' he added.
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