Tripura government gives jobs to 18 next of kin of victims murdered in political violence

The Tripura Government has started the process of distributing job offers to families whose members were killed in incidents of political violence before the incumbent alliance government came to power in 2018. Jobs were handed to 18 next of kin of the victims, which an official on Sunday (June 22, 2025) described as the first phase of such recruitment.

“A committee was constituted to provide government jobs to persons whose family members were victims of political murders. So far, the panel has received 39 applications, and out of these, 18 persons have been given jobs,” Tripura Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath said at a press conference.

“Several families couldn’t even file FIRs with police, and many case records are missing,” he claimed.

The BJP-led government in December 2020 announced a scheme to provide jobs to next of kin of those killed in political violence over a period of 46 years with 2018 as the cutoff year. Thereafter, some jobs were disbursed to the affected families, but not blockwise like now.

A State Government official said 18 aspirants who were selected from the list recommended by a committee which was earlier set up to identify the victim families. “The primary consideration for recruitment is based on the financial condition of the families, but all those lost kin would also be considered in the next phases,” the official stated.

The apparent policy of the State Government is to support only non-left families who fell prey to violence during previous CPI(M)-led governments. The victims, according to the official assessment, had been connected with the Congress party, as it was the main Opposition party in the state before 2018.

CPI(M), now in opposition, alleged that the policy of providing government jobs only to non-left families is “inhumane”, as scores of left supporters were killed in political violence. A party leader pointed to targeted killings of left leaders, workers and supporters during the “repressive” five-year rule of the Congress-TUJS alliance government from 1988 to 1993.

(With PTI inputs)