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Badal writes to PM on riot victims' plight

Staff Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal president, Parkash Singh Badal has urged Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to intervene and put an end to the humiliation and harassment of the November 1984 anti-Sikh riots' victims at the hands of the Punjab Government.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the copy of which was distributed to the media here on Sunday, Mr. Badal said that the affected families have chosen a path of agitation and warned that if timely action was not taken, the situation could take a serious turn.

Mr Badal demanded that all those who had applied for the red cards must be compensated immediately as announced by the Union Government. He also demanded that the date for filing claims be extended. In addition, guidelines must be issued for non-red cardholders where some other genuine documents should be accepted.

Mr. Badal charged that the Punjab Government was creating hurdles in the release of compensation to the red cardholders. He alleged that on one hand the State Government was delaying compensation and implementing the Shankaran committee recommendations on the other it had through a Cabinet decision withdrawn all facilities which were provided by the previous Akali-BJP government. To achieve this, the present Government had filed an affidavit in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he said.

Mr. Badal described the actions of the State Government as malafide and politically- motivated .He said that there were 22000 holders of the red cards, which were issued to them after proper verification procedures. On the basis of this number, the Union Government had declared a package of Rs 440 crores. The Akali chief further said that out of 22,000 card holders only 10,000 had applied for compensation, indicating that the actual number of applicants was far less than the total number of red card holders in the State.

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