The Left Front government has decided to pay compensation to the next kin of the victims of the March 14 police firing at Nandigram which left 14 dead and several injured.

“A decision has been taken to provide relief to the victims and to the kin of those killed in bomb attacks,” CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu told newspersons here on Friday.

Administrative measures have been initiated to restore peace in Nandigram where violence erupted in the last few days in the wake of dismantling of police camps, he said. On the demand being voiced by the CPM leaders that the issue of compensation should be considered from January this year when the violence first began, the former chief minister said: “Let a list be prepared where it’ll be decided who would be given compensation on humanitarian grounds. Those who died in bombs thrown during the violence and those killed in police firing will be given compensation on humanitarian ground.”

The TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has accused the government of not even issuing death certificates to the victims while the party-led Farmland Eviction Resistance Committee members rejected the government olive branch stating that the compensation issue had been “mixed with the armed CPM goons” who fell to the combined resistance of the farmers.