Agartala, June 21 (IANS) The BJP-led state government in Tripura has so far provided government jobs to 18 people whose family members were victims of political killings, state’s Parliamentary Affairs and Agriculture Minister Ratan Lal Nath said on Saturday.

The minister said that irrespective of political affinity, these 18 people got government jobs and applications of five more families are under consideration.

“A committee was earlier constituted to provide government jobs to persons whose family members were victims of political murders. So far, the committee has received 39 applications, and out of these, 18 people have already been given jobs,” Nath told the media.

The veteran minister, second-in-command after Chief Minister Manik Saha, claimed that Tripura had witnessed a large number of political murders before the BJP led government came to power in March 2018.

Showing papers, he claimed that many families could not even file FIRs with police due to various reasons and many political murder case records are missing.

Nath, a Congress-turned-BJP leader, said that most of the victims belonged to opposition Congress families. The Congress last governed the state from 1988 to 1993.

Many BJP leaders and workers were also killed due to political reasons before 2018, he said. Tripura was ruled by the CPI (M)-led Left Front for 35 years in two phases — from 1978 to 1988 and again from 1993 to February 2018.

Nath said the committee headed by him held its second meeting on June 19 to review the pending applications.

Every application was considered on the basis of the reports from the concerned District Magistrate and Superintendent of police, he said, adding that the BJP-led government has not discriminated against any political murder victim’s family due to their political likeness.

–IANS

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