The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has fixed the compensation amounts to be handed to the kin of victims of the building collapse in Garden Reach. The families of the dead will get Rs 2 lakh and the injured will get Rs 50,000.
The amount was fixed last week based on the state government's standard rate of compensation given to disaster victims, said a KMC official.
The decision was taken after the Election Commission of India informed the KMC on March 23 that any increase from the “extant” compensation amount given to disaster victims would need a nod from it. It, however, allowed the KMC to hand over compensation to the victims and their families as per the existing rate.
The commission's reply was in response to a letter from the state government to the chief electoral officer of Bengal, the commission’s representative in the state, asking whether the KMC could hand over Rs 5 lakh to the families of the dead and Rs 1 lakh to the injured, officials of the state government and the civic body said.
"We have decided to give Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the kin or family members of the dead. Those who were injured will get Rs 50,000. This is the current rate of compensation for victims of disaster," said a KMC official.
Sources said officials from the KMC or the state government will either visit Garden Reach or ask the families to come to the KMC headquarters to take the documents related to the compensation. Officials, and not any elected representative of the civic body, are likely to hand over the documents, the sources said.
Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim had announced Rs 5 lakh compensation each for the families of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh for each injured after the collapse.
The BJP had alleged that this was a violation of the model code of conduct. The party wrote to the commission saying a government official like the chief secretary should have announced the compensation instead of the mayor. The BJP did not object to the amounts.