J&K: PRIs & ULBs elected members to recieve life insurance worth Rs 25 lakhs

In a major decision taken by the Jammu & Kashmir administration council on Saturday, it has announced that elected members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will receive a life insurance cover of Rs 25 lakhs in case of death due to militancy related incidents. The decision was taken by the council under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu. The move comes days after J&K Sarpanch Ajay Pandita was gunned down by terrorists on June 8.

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J&K Sarpanch shot dead 

On June 8, terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag fired upon Congress Sarpanch Ajay Pandita at Lokbawan, who later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. According to the police, the terrorists fired at 40-year-old Ajay Pandita, a sarpanch of Lokbowan Larkipora, at around 6 pm, leaving him critically wounded. The police further stated that he was taken to the hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. 

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Ramesh Pandita filed a writ petition in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court demanding a CBI probe and judicial inquiry into the murder of his relative Ajay Pandita. A coordinator of the global Kashmiri Pandit diaspora activities in J&K, the petitioner stated that the Kashmiri Pandit community had faced killings since the late 1980s. Citing the slain Sarpanch's interview to a local news channel in December 2019, Pandita argued that no security was provided by the J&K Police despite threats to the former's life.

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