The Hindu : National : Sikh forums write to Kalam

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Saturday, Aug 13, 2005

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National

Sikh forums write to Kalam

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The All-India Riot Victim Relief Committee has sent a memorandum to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam urging him to ask the Government to give Rs.10-lakh compensation to the kith and kin of those killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots besides Rs. 5 lakhs to those who were seriously injured and whose property was looted or burnt by the rampaging mob.

In a press release here on Friday, committee head K.S. Bhogal has also demanded a government job to at least one children of the families affected in the riots. Though the victims were provided relief and compensation but that was only eyewash that failed to ensure their proper rehabilitation or make them self-reliant. Now it is high time that the Government came to their aid and provided them with enough financial relief so that they could start their lives afresh, he said in the memorandum.

Mr. Bhogal said even after 21 years of the massacre in which thousands of Sikhs were brutally killed, not a single person has been prosecuted.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-New Democracy held a demonstration in the capital protesting against the "flawed" Action Taken Report on the Nanavati Commission's findings into the 1984 riots. Demanding that all those involved in the genocide, including politicians and police officers, be immediately punished, the party leaders said it was unfortunate that after so many commissions, rioters were still roaming free. The party also sought proper compensation for riot victims.

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