File photo of aspirants during the Agniveer recruitment rally.
Credit: PTI Photo
The row over compensation to the next of kin of Agniveer Ajay Kumar intensified after Rahul Gandhi on Friday reiterated that the martyr's family had not got compensation till date and alleged that the Modi government was discriminating against the Agniveers.
Gandhi said in a video that was posted on his X handle that the martyr's family had not got compensation and asked why they have not got ex-gratia payment.
He asked why the salary arrears have not been received in the bank account of the martyr's family.
"Rajnath Singh said that family of martyrs have been given Rs 1 crore. We haven't got that," the father of the martyr said.
Gandhi said the truth is that there are two types of martyrs in the country -- normal jawan and Agniveer.
"Both would be martyred but one would get the status of a martyr while the other would not. One would get a pension, while the other would not, said Rahul Gandhi.
The system works differently for compensations for Agniveers and soldiers. According to a report by The Indian Express, the deaths are classified into different categories; A to E for soldiers and X, Y, Z for the Agniveers.
Category A for soldiers and category Y for Agniveers are for non-duty related deaths.
Category B, C for regular soldiers and category Y for Agniveers are for duty related accidents.
Category D and E for soldiers and category Z for Agniveers includes deaths that occurred during war, violence, natural calamities and enemy action.
Insurance system: For insurance, the regular soldiers have to contribute Rs 5,000 every month, which make it a total of Rs 50 lakh insurance, whereas the Agniveers get the insurance of Rs 48 lakh, but without contributing anything from their salary.
For Agniveers, Rs 44 lakh is the ex-gratia amount given, whereas for soldiers a sum between Rs 25 lakh, Rs 35 lakh and Rs 45 lakh is given depending on the cause of death.
The insurance amount is given to every soldier who died of any reason.
However, Rs 8 lakh is given to both regular soldiers and Agniveers if the death occurred during any operation; if they die due to some other cause, they are given a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh.
Following the row, Indian Army rejected the claims on social media that compensation has not been paid to the next of kin of Agniveer Kumar, who lost his life in the line of duty, and said his family has already been given Rs 98.39 lakh of the due amount.
The total amount will be Rs 1.65 crore approximately, it said in the "clarification" that came after Gandhi shared the video on the microblogging platform.
(With PTI inputs)