Instead, Onkarnath borrowed Rs 10,000 from his neighbours to perform the last rites.

In December 2011, Rs 2 lakh was granted to each of the families who had lost a family member in the Hooch tragedy in Sangrampur, West Bengal. What is surprising is, the same amount was given as compensation to the two bereaved families of Uri martyrs in West Bengal – those of Gangadhar Dolui in Howrah and Biswajit Ghorai. “We are not going to accept the Rs 2 lakh compensation and the job of a home guard that the chief minister has offered,” Onkarnath Dolui, the father of Uri martyr Gangadhar Dolui, told Hindustan Times.

Instead, Onkarnath borrowed Rs 10,000 from his neighbours to perform the last rites. “The compensation amounts to sheer humiliation. The government has offered us Rs 2 lakh, the amount that it offers to the families of persons who die after consuming hooch. We will reject the money as well as the offer for a home guard’s job that will be offered to my younger son,” said Dolui breaking down during the conversation. Howrah Trinamool leader and a member of Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, Arup Roy, sounded helpless. “I don’t decide on compensation amount. But you see, the government is also offering the family a job,” Roy said. The families of the martyrs have received pledges of Rs 41 lakhs from the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand, as well as facilities.