The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Court for panel to monitor rehabilitation of acid victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 17, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Court for panel to monitor rehabilitation of acid victims

Staff Reporter

Only 14 of 41 acid attack victims received relief

Women and Child Department told to amend several Kannada words
Bench calls for mechanism to ensure accountability while purchasing acid

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Friday suggested to the State Government to set up a panel to monitor the rehabilitation package for victims of acid attacks.

A Division Bench comprising Justice S.R. Bannurmath and Justice Subash B. Adi said the committee could comprise among others, officials from the Departments of Women and Child Welfare and Health. It said the committee should not have more than three or four members and that it should look into the rehabilitation scheme for the entire State.

The Bench made it clear that it would continue to issue directions on rehabilitation of acid victims and would also monitor the progress. The Bench suggested to the Women and Child Department to amend several Kannada words as they were ambiguous. It took serious exception to the fact that the media had published details of the GO even before it was filed in court.

It was dealing with a PIL filed by an association of acid victims seeking a direction to the State to come up with a comprehensive rehabilitation package.

When the matter came up, State Public Prosecutor (SPP), H.S. Chandramouli, said a GO on providing rehabilitation to acid victims had been issued last week.

The Bench asked both the SPP and the petitioners for suggestions and said it would peruse the GO before issuing further guidelines. It observed that though several scheme are formulated, only a handful are implemented. “Therefore, we will monitor it for sometime”, it said.

The Bench was told that there is a list of 41 acid attack victims in the State. Of them, only 14 had received compensation from the Department of Women and Child Welfare. The Bench then orally asked the Department to release Rs. 10,000 each to the rest of the acid attack victims.

The Department said it had been allotted Rs. 1 crore in the recent Budget. It said it could release only Rs. 20,000 as compensation. The Bench said any amount in excess of Rs. 20,000 could be released by the committee, when it is set up.

It said victims could be provided free treatment in Government hospitals in case they had facilities for treating acid attack cases. If they did not have the facility, the Government could bear the cost of treatment at a recognised private hospital.

The Bench also said it is against fixing any cut-off date for providing relief to acid victims. When told that the State had not come up with any suggestion to prevent or curb sale of acid, the Bench remarked that the term “acid” must include corrosive substances. It said even certain categories of detergents are highly corrosive and these too should be included in the category of acids.

It orally said it would suggest to the Government to draw up a mechanism to ensure that there is more accountability while purchasing acid. Any person purchasing acid would have to register his name and address and the purpose for which he wants to use it. The Bench adjourned further hearing on the case to November 30.

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