The Assam government has increased the corpus of the Assam Agitation Welfare Trust to Rs 10 crore from Rs 5 crore.

“With Rs 10 crore at its disposal, the trust would be able to provide relief to family members of the martyrs of Assam Agitation and those grievously injured during the stir,” Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said here on Saturday.

During the six-year-long historic Assam movement from 1979, altogether 860 persons lost their lives in the agitation to end influx from Bangladesh as it “posed” a threat to the Assamese identity and livelihood issues.

Sarma had announced the formation of the trust with a Rs 5 crore corpus last year on the occasion of Swahid Divas, which is observed every year on December 10 to mark the death anniversary of the movement’s first martyr, Swahid Khargeswar Talukdar.

The BJP-led state government has already provided an amount of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of each martyr.

Sarma on Saturday also directed the Assam Accord Implementation Department to make an online database of those who were hit by bullets or were seriously injured during their participation in the Assam Agitation.

The trust was created with the objective of taking care of the education and medical expenses of the families of the martyrs for their supreme sacrifice. Looking after the welfare of affected families was the state government’s responsibility now, Sarma said last year.

Sarma announced the increase of the financial support to the trust at a meeting held at Janata Bhavan on Saturday to discuss matters related to its future tasks.