More than 40 days after an ‘unsung’ hero identified as Raj Kumar Nayak, hailing from Janjgir Champa district of Chattisgarh, fell prey to the Pakistani bullets in Ramgarh sector of Samba his widow, and four minor children continue to wait for the ex-gratia relief in their native Semaradi village falling under the jurisdiction of Panda Hardi panchayat in Jaijaipur tehsil.
Raj Kumar Nayak, working as raj mistry (head mason) was hired by a local construction agency to carry out construction work along the International Border in Ramgarh sector of Samba.
On October 23, 2015 when the entire team of over 30 laborers were preparing themselves to return home in the protected vehicles sniper fire from across the border hit Raj Kumar Nayak and two other construction workers including works supervisor of the company.
Bleeding profusely Raj Kumar succumbed to his fatal injury before he was rushed to the nearby hospital.
In the absence of any helping hand the next of kin of Nayak continue to struggle to earn their livelihood after returning from J&K.
None of the politicians in the State cared little enough to pay a token visit to their temporary shelter close to the International Border to boost their morale and condole them in their hour of grief.
There are numerous instances where relief cheques were distributed by the senior State Ministers to the next of kin of border firing victim even before performing their last rites.
Victims of border firing are entitled to an ex-gratia of `1 lakh in Jammu & Kashmir.
Deputy Commissioner, Samba Sheetal Nanda when contacted via SMS confirmed to The Pioneer correspondent that the compensation amount has been sent to the district of his residence in Chattisgarh on November 21, 2015.
On the other hand when this correspondent approached District Magistrate, Janjgir Champa OP Choudhary over telephone he confirmed the fact that his office was yet to receive any official communication from the office of DC, Samba in this regard.
“In the absence of any formal communication how can we distribute and identify the next of kin of the deceased”, a senior officer in the office of District Magistrate Janjgir Champa explained.
However, reacting to the input shared by this correspondent OP Choudhary after conducting a preliminary inquiry through one of his Assistant Collector and local Tehsildar posted in the area further clarified the family is yet to receive any ex-gratia sanctioned by the Jammu & Kashmir Government.
AR Khan, Tehsildar Jaijaipur told The Pioneer over telephone, “i have submitted my report to the senior authorities after recording the statements of Dulari Devi, widow of Raj Kumar Nayak and his ageing father Ram Prasad”.
According to Khan, in their statement they revealed during their stay in Jammu close to the International border none of the state govt agencies paid a visit to process their ex-gratia relief file.
Meanwhile, to verify the information shared by the DM Janjgir Champa when this correspondent once again approached DC, Samba Sheetal Nanda she could not be contacted.
In her absence, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Samba Pawan Kumar Sharma told The Pioneer on Friday, “we have presented the bill to the local treasury for clearance clearly suggesting that the ex-gratia amount was yet to be dispatched to the office of DM Janjgir Champa”.
District Treasury Officer, Samba Sham Singh Slathia when contacted confirmed to The Pioneer, “The office of Additional Deputy Commissioner, Samba had forwarded a bill along with sanction letter to release the amount in favour of cross border firing victim”. He said the amount would be released soon after the funds would be made available in the local treasury. He,however, remained non-committal on the actual date of receipt of money in the treasury office.