Spotlight: NRI tag earns state sympathy

B. Kiran, the software engineer from Warangal who was shot by unknown assailants in Johannesburg on July 2, 2009, succumbed to his injuries on July 8.

The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, immediately announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to his family. During a meeting with Kiran’s brother Ganesh, Dr Reddy, also promised to bear all the expenses of bringing the body back to India. The Indian high commission in Johannesburg was contacted and arrangements were swiftly made to bring the body back home. Such prompt action from the state government is missing when it comes to victims of crime in the state. It takes an NRI tag for the victim of a crime to get ex gratia or compensation and other services from the state. Relatives of victims of violent crimes say the rules regarding compensation are arbitrary, police investigations are unsatisfactory, and the government shows little sympathy.

On July 1, 2006, Kothuri Bhumireddy, 39, an educated farmer from Chityal mandal in Warangal, accidentally fell into a pit that was dug to lay pipelines for the Devadula irrigation project at Kamareddypally. He has been in a coma for three years and Rs 3 lakh has been spent on his treatment at Nims in the city and in other places. Though it was criminal negligence on the part of the project authorities and the government in leaving such trenches exposed, the government has given Mr Bhumireddy no help.

In 2004, the sensational double murder of two women advocates practising in the city civil court made headlines. Their bodies were found at different locations on the outskirts of the city. “Leave alone the compensation, the case was eventually closed due to lack of evidence,” said Mr Ranga Rao, former president of the Nampally Criminal Courts Bar Association.

Ayesha Meera, a 20-year-old pharmacy student, was brutally raped and murdered on December 27, 2007 in her hostel room in Ibrahimapatnam near Vijayawada. The culprits are yet to be arrested. Meera’s mother, Shamshad Begum, said none of the women ministers in the previous government had condemned the rape and murder of her daughter or expressed their condolences. She is furious at the double standards of the government when it comes to crimes taking place in India and abroad. Due to the delay in arrest of culprit the family rejected the ex gratia of Rs 75,000 offered by the government.

The family of D. Hapsiba, a final year B.Tech student who was recently murdered by an autorickshaw driver has also condemned the government’s apathy in tracing the murderer of their daughter and its general lack of sympathy. The families of techies who have died abroad have been granted several lakhs as ex gratia payment, but “when our children die here, not one official visits our house,” said Mr Solomon, the victim’s uncle. The district minister, Mr K.P. Saradhi, did visit their house recently to condole with the family but did not promise any help from the government. He talked to the collector over the telephone. Family members can claim Rs 2 lakh from the SC Corporation if they submit the proper applications in the various offices. “They (NRIs) get ex gratia even without putting in a single application, but in our case it might take us a lifetime,” Mr Solomon said.

Courtesy: deccan