Kurseong, April 9: A woman, who lost her husband to a fire in their house, has been given a compensation of Rs 50,000 within 19 days of the incident. This is at a time when many victims of natural calamities have been waiting for years for compensation

Kurseong deputy magistrate A. Majumdar, handed over a cheque for Rs 50,000 to Kaushalaya Chettri on Monday.

“This is the first time in my 30 years of service that we have been able to give compensation to a person within a short period. We are happy with the way our employees have completed the process needed to dole out the compensation. Generally, it would take long time for the government to distribute the amount,” said Asha Mukhia Lama, the relief officer at the Kurseong subdivisional office.

For any natural calamity, the state government pays the affected families a compensation of Rs 50,000.

“Usually, it takes a lot of time for post-mortem and police investigation reports to reach us. However, in this, case, we got both the reports fast. Added to it is the efficient work of our employees,” said Lama.

While giving the cheque to the widow, Majumdar thanked the officials concerned for expeditiously completing the whole process.

Lama said there were so many cases of victims of natural calamities not getting relief even after many years of wait.

For example, some of the affected families of a landslide at Ghayabari in Mirik in 2000 have still not received the compensation from the government. “The reason may be that the documents needed for the completion of the process have not been made ready,” said Lama.

Kaushalaya’s husband Bhim Bahadur, who was alone in the house, was said to be watching television when the mishap occurred at Dilaram, 10km from here, on February 18.

What caused the fire is still not known. Bahadur had retired from the state electricity department.

The woman said she would use a part of the money to re-construct the house. Kaushalaya is currently residing at her relative's house in Dilaram, along with her son, daughter and daughter-in-law.