Badal, Bhattal console fire-hit families

Badal, Bhattal console fire-hit families
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Midhu Khera/Tharajwala (Muktsar), May 3

Nursing their burns

To comfort families of victims of the fire which engulfed fields in the Malwa belt on Thursday, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, today visited the villages in Muktsar district.
The CM was tight-fisted, mostly giving assurances to bereaved families, citing the election code of conduct in force due to the rural bodies’ polls.
The Chief Minister visited Midhu Khera village where he met Soma (18), a Plus II student, who due to smoke, has suffered respiratory problems. He asked the family to shift her to Ludhiana for treatment and assured that the cost of treatment would taken care of by the government.
After that, he met the family of the deceased Bimla (32) and her daughter Mamta (14), a student of class VII, and assured her husband Om Parkash of a fixed income in the name of his three children (aged 10, four and two years). He also handed over a cheque of Rs 10,000 on the spot. It has been reported that Badal has assured him of a compensation worth Rs 2 lakh, but after the elections.
He then moved to Tharaj Wala village, where he met the family members of the deceased Agwan Kaur (65), belonging to the Dalit community, who was burnt alive and assured support to the family members
The CM said, “Investigation has been initiated and the loss assessment report has reached the Finance Department, which will decide on the compensation”.
Meanwhile, Bhattal too visited the affected villages. After a halt at Bathinda and Badal villages, she too, in a cavalcade, visited Midhu Khera, Tharaj Wala and Bhullar villages and assured the families of her support. She even sought the photographs of members of the victim families, with the promise of putting up their case before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi.
As the Leader of the Opposition, she assured support to the ruling party in passing a Bill or enacting a law banning the burning of straw in the wheat fields.