The Hindu : Front Page : More relief for Gujarat riot victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 27, 2006
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More relief for Gujarat riot victims

Special Correspondent

Each victim may get Rs. 7 lakh

New Delhi: With the Manmohan Singh Government reviewing existing policies governing the payment of compensation to victims of communal violence, the families of the over 2,000 individuals killed in Gujarat during the communal violence in the State in 2002 are likely to be the first to benefit from enhanced ex-gratia monies.

According to PTI, the Centre has decided to pay Rs. 7 lakh as compensation to each victim of the Gujarat violence, which lasted several months that year. Most of those killed were Muslims. Though the existing State Government compensation package provides for only the payment of Rs. one lakh for each person killed, the new package, if finalised, will place the Gujarat victims on par with the victims of the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and other cities following the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided that based on the compensation given to anti-Sikh riot victims, Rs. 7 lakh ex-gratia would be paid to victims if communal riots take place anywhere in the country," PTI quoted Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriparkash Jaiswal as saying.

The BJP government of Narendra Modi had initially promised the victims of the Godhra train fire a total of Rs. two lakh but this figure was reduced to one lakh.

The Centre's decision to review the level of compensation follows a recent report of the National Commission for Minorities pointing to the failure of existing rehabilitation policies in Gujarat. Sources said the NCM also highlighted the wide disparity in compensation packages from incident to incident.

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