Nagpur, November 26: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Maharashtra unit President Nitin Gadkari today alleged that the families of Hemant Karkare and Ashok Kamte, the senior IPS officials slain during the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai last year, had not yet received the insurance amount of Rs 25 lakh each on the cover taken out by the state government on their lives.
Speaking to reporters here this evening, Mr Gadkari said that the families were waiting to receive the money even as the country observes the first anniversary of the attacks tomorrow. In fact, nearly 113 persons who died in the attack had not received the aid promised to them by the offices of the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, he said.
This showed that the Democratic Front (DF) government was not serious about tackling terrorism, Mr Gadkari said. The DF was indulging in appeasement of terrorism for its vote bank politics, he also said.
It was unfortunate that Vilasrao Deshmukh and R R Patil had been rewarded, rather than being punished for the terror attacks, the former Maharashtra minister said. ”Mr Deshmukh was chief minister and Mr Patil the Home Minister when the terror attacks took place.
Both of them resigned, but Mr Deshmukh later got elected to the Lok Sabha and has been made a minister in the union cabinet, while Mr Patil was given the ticket again and is now back as the Home Minister,” he said.
It was also unfortunate that senior police officials were indulging in mud slinging in full public view, through newspapers and television, Mr Gadkari said, adding that this was the direct result of political interference in the police department.
Activists of the BJP and its youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuwa Morcha (BJYM), will hold programmes all over the state tomorrow to pay homage to the martyrs and victims of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Mr Gadkari told newsmen. People would also be administered an oath to fight terrorism, he added.
——Agencies