Mamata Banerjee announces Rs 10 lakh compensation for families of Pahalgam victims

Kolkata, April 26 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Saturday, announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakhs for the families of each of the three tourists from West Bengal who were killed in Kashmir’s Pahalgam terror attack.

Besides the family members of the three slain tourists namely Bitan Adhikari, Sameer Guha, and Manish Ranjan, the family of the Havaldar Havaldar Jhantu Ali Sheikh, the martyr paratrooper killed in an ambush with terrorists in the Basantgarh area in Udhampur district of J&K, earlier this week, will also be provided with one-time compensation of Rs 10 lakhs by the state government.

Of the compensation amount of Rs 10 lakhs, Rs 50,000 would be for the widows and the remaining Rs 50,000 would be for the parents.

In addition, the Chief Minister announced that the parents of Bitan Adhikari, who stays in Kolkata, will be provided with a monthly pension of Rs 10,000.

Bitan Adhikari was settled in Florida, USA, with his wife, Sohini and son Hridan. Sohini is also employed in Florida.

Of the two other tourists killed in the Pahalgam massacre, Sameer Guha, a resident of the Sakher Bazar area of Behala on the southern outskirts of Kolkata, was a central government official.

Manish Ranjan Mishra, an original resident of Jhalda in Purulia district of West Bengal, was a Central Intelligence Bureau officer. He was currently posted in Hyderabad, where he used to reside with his wife, son and daughter.

Havaldar Jhantu Ali Sheikh, who was attached to the 6th Battalion of Para Special Forces, was a resident of Tehatta in Nadia district of West Bengal.

He is survived by his wife Jhuma and two kids, Tanvir and Rehana. The widow, along with their kids, used to reside at the staff quarters at Agra Cantonment in Uttar Pradesh.

--IANS

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