Moved by the plight of the security forces fighting the Maoists, the Orissa Government has decided to give special family pensions, homestead plots, and jobs to the next of kin of policemen killed in anti-Maoist operations.

The first such offer came in the wake of a landmine blast in Malkangiri on July 16 that left 17 policemen dead.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who visited Malkangiri last Sunday, commiserated with the families of the deceased policemen, meeting the mother and wife of Inspector Sarat Chandra Mishra, one of the policemen killed in the blast.

Before the Malkangiri blast, families of Orissa cops who died while fighting Maoists were compensated with Rs 4 lakh ex gratia, Rs 10 lakh as insurance money and a job or a special family pension amounting to the expected pay of the policeman till his superannuation. “If somebody from the family of the deceased policeman opted for a government job according to his/her qualifications, then the family didn’t get the special family pension. But after the Malkangiri blast, the families of the deceased policemen would get both as well as a homestead land measuring four decimal,” said a senior official of the state’s Home Department.

“It will be a morale booster for other policemen engaged in fighting the Maoists,” said Deputy Inspector General of Police (southwest range) Sanjib Panda. The families getting special family pensions will get the routine increments that would have been due to the deceased policeman in normal time, and the pay scale will be revised when the state Government revises the pay of its officials.

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