Govt to provide Rs 1 million each to families of Balkumari victims; takes action against Officials

Kathmandu / Dec 30: The government has decided to provide one million rupees in compensation to each family of two youths killed in Balkumari incident on Friday.

An emergency Cabinet meeting held at the official residence of the Prime Minister at Baluwatar today took the decision in this regard, shared Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma.

Sujan Raut of Dailekh and Birendra Shah of Accham district were killed in a clash with police personnel at Balkumari, Lalitpur. The government paid tribute to the deceased and extended condolences towards the bereaved family members, said Minister Sharma, who is also the Spokesperson of the government.

Similarly, the government would make arrangement of free treatment to those injured in the incident. The meeting took the decision that the Finance Ministry would provide necessary budget to Home Ministry for the treatment of injured ones.

The government has urged everyone to maintain peace and order, she said.

Stating that the Ministry of Home Affairs had already formed a committee yesterday to prove the incident, the Minister said that the Committee would furnish suggestions so that such untoward incidents would not repeat.

On a different note, Minister Sharma said that the PM had already expressed his commitment to bring important acts such as Federal Civil Service Act and Federal Police Act among others related to implementation of the federalism.

Security officer who ordered to open fire in Balkumari incident suspended

The government is going to take action against those negligent authorities in the Balkumari incident that caused physical and human loss.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ shared that the police officer who ordered to shooting in the course of containing the mob without considering other options has been suspended until the investigation was over.

PM Prachanda informed this while addressing the 6th national trade union conference of the Joint Trade Union Coordination Centre (JTUCC) here today.

Apart from the security officer, the security personnel assigned for escorting the vehicle where Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala was travelling have been suspended for proceeding with the vehicle without analyzing the security situation, according to the PM.

The suspension decision was in effect also for the Chief of the Employment Permit System (EPS) branch, said PM Prachanda, adding that the suspension was enforced in consultation with him and at the instruction of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Narayankaji Shrestha.

Two persons died while the vehicle used for Minister Jwala was set on fire in the unpleasant incident at Balkumari yesterday. Some irate youths protested in front of the office of EPS as they were not allowed for the Korean language test.

The protest suddenly took an ugly turn causing the loss of two lives.

PM Prachanda, during his address at the conference, said that the meeting of the Council of Ministers was summoned today to provide compensation to the youths who lost their lives in the incident.

The Head of the Government today morning did stocktaking of the incident calling a meeting with DPM Shrestha, the Secretary of at Home Ministry, Dinesh Bhattarai, and Heads of the security agencies.

He said that discussions on the same were held with the coalition partners. RSS