NEW DELHI: The Centre's latest relief package for the 2002 Gujarat carnage victims is "modest but long overdue and welcome," activist groups have said. However, specific attention needs to be paid to the plight of the 5,000 Muslim families who continue to live in temporary camps and colonies.

In a statement, the Aantarik Visthapit Hak Rakshak Samiti urged the Centre to expand the scope of the Rs.106.57-crore package "to bring into its framework the rights to relief, rehabilitation and reparation for the thousands who still remain internally displaced due to the violence in 2002 and who have really been in the forefront of this latest chapter in the struggle for recognition."

According to the activists, the package focussed primarily on payment of ex gratia for those who died or sustained injuries and only to a lesser extent on providing compensation for damage to residential and commercial properties or those still displaced.

The statement, signed by Samiti convener Yusuf Shaikh and activists Gagan Sethi, Shabnam Hashmi and Farah Naqvi, pointed to the October 2006 report of the National Commission for Minorities, recommending that the Gujarat Government and the Centre provide basic amenities and livelihood to internally-displaced persons (IDPs) living in makeshift camps.

The NCM also called upon the Centre to implement a comprehensive economic package that would address their concerns of livelihood as well as availability of credit and raw materials.

In a separate statement, Teesta Setalvad of the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) described the package as the "first significant and concrete step and acknowledgement of the State-sponsored violence."

She said: "The fact that injured persons have also been granted some reparation is an acknowledgement of the extent of the violence. It is a shame that the Centre has been compelled to intervene in violence that was left uncontrolled by a State (Government) that failed to perform its constitutional commitments and duty."

Reparation for victims

The CJP stressed the need for a package for the IDPs. It expressed the hope that the Centre's package in its final form would provide reparation for victims of sexual violence and those who suffered complete damage to homes and businesses.

It accused the Gujarat Government of "mala fide intentions" in returning Rs.19 crore of relief monies to the Centre and not disbursing enough compensation for damage caused to houses. "When the scheme announced Rs. 50,000 per house damaged, barely 20 per cent of those whose homes have been destroyed have received the full amount."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail