Mangaluru: Within two days of her promise, Trinamul supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sent two senior leaders of the party to handover compensation each to the family members of the two victims who were killed during the police firing during the anti-CAA rally in Mangaluru last week.
Despite Trinamul having no presence in Karnataka, Banerjee had on Thursday declared compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the family members of the victims.
On Saturday, the team of two leaders — former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and Rajya Sabha member M.D. Nadimul Haque arrived at Mangaluru Inter-national Airport and visited the house of two victims — Jaleel and Nausheen. They paid condolences and spoke to the family members. However, they denied speaking anything on politics.
“Two families have lost their dear ones. They are our fellow citizens. We know that no compensation can bring them back. But we stand by the family members of the families and this compensation is a token, an expression of solidarity that we want to hand over to the family members as per the directions of our leader. There is no political reason. It’s a purely humanitarian gesture,” Trivedi told reporters.
When asked about Karnataka government withholding compensation to the family members, the Trinamul leader declined comment.
“We will not speak on that. We stand by the family. There’s nothing more than that. It is for the people to decide,” he added.
On police firing, Trivedi said that India was not under British Raj.
“Didi has already told the Prime Minister about the strong opposition to the NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act in the country," he added.
