Acid attack victim awaits Rs18-lakh treatment money

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, November 24

An acid attack victim, Mandeep Kaur, is yet to get reimbursement of medical bills running into Rs 18 lakh for surgeries she has undergone since the attack in 2013.

She has undergone more than 50 surgeries in four years and is yet to undergo a few more.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court took a suo motu notice of a news report “Man throws acid on estranged wife, father-in-law in Moga” published in The Tribune on July 13, 2013. It clubbed together several other petitions of acid attack victims and issued directions to the Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh Administration to formulate a policy on financial aid and medical expenses for the acid attack victims.

On December 20, 2013, the state government had filed an affidavit in the HC, submitting that it would bear full medical costs of acid attack victims.

Mandeep’s case, however, stares government in the face. A native of the district’s Mehna village, Mandeep had suffered 70 per cent burn injuries and lost an eye in the acid attack.

In October last year, the district and sessions court had convicted her husband, Harinder Singh, and three of his associates to life imprisonment.

The court had ordered the District Legal Services Authority to pay Rs 5 lakh in compensation to the victim within 15 days of the conviction. The financial assistance was paid to her a couple of weeks ago — after a gap of more than a year.

Mandeep’s told The Tribune over phone, “I have to undergo a few more surgeries of my eyes and face, but do not have enough money for that. I have re-paid the loans raised from my relatives from the compensation amount.”

Her father Shamsher said he had already spent lakhs of rupees on the treatment of his daughter. “As per a notification, the state government is required to pay Rs 8,000 per month in compensation to acid attack victims. I submitted my daughter’s application before the social security officer four months ago, but no help came.”

District Magistrate Dilraj Singh Sandhawalia said he was unaware of the matter, and would summon the social security officer in his office tomorrow and ask him about the case.