The price of a human life was valued at Rs five lakh during the recent communal violence while the same was a Rs 12 lakh for the families of the victims of police firing at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district.

The worth of life of each victim of communal violence was increased from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh after announcement of Rs 3 lakh central assistance to the next of kins by the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who visited the strife-torn district, on Wednesday.

Earlier, the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the families of riot-victims.

Similarly, for the victims of January 2, 2006 Kalinga Nagar police firing, both the state and the Centre had announced Rs 5 lakh each. Besides this, the AICC had also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each taking the total amount for the families of each of the victims to Rs 12 lakh.

However, the price of a civilian killed in the Maoist attack is only Rs 2 lakh. As many as 34 civilians were killed in different Maoist violence so far in 2008, sources said.

"It is a government policy to grant an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to each civilian killed in Maoist attack", DGP Gopal Chandra Nanda said, adding that the amount of ex-gratia for security personnel was more.

Though the Union Home Minister and Orissa Chief Minister had announced an ex-gratia to the victims of communal violence, but both were silent about any assistance to those gunned down by unidentified miscreants along with Swami Laxamananda Saraswati. The killing of Saraswati, triggered the communal violence in Kandhamal district and other parts of the state.

Meanwhile, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) N K Sundaray said the government had recently decided to give an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 to each of the families of lightning victims.

Over 200 people die of lightning every year in Orissa, sources said.

However, the state government's ex-gratia amount was different for the deaths during natural calamities.