1984 riot victims to gherao DC office on Sept 12

Ludhiana, August 17

Charging the Punjab Government with failure to dispense justice and dilly-dallying over demands, the 1984 Sikh Katle-Aam Peerit Welfare Society – a body of victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, has announced its decision to gherao the Deputy Commissioner’s office on September 12. A four member group of widows of the 1984 riots will also sit on a fast unto death.

Addressing a news conference here today, Surjit Singh, president of the society, slammed the Punjab Government led by Parkash Singh Badal as well as the bureaucracy with giving a raw deal to the victims of Sikh carnage of 1984. He said the state government had failed to carry out any of its tall promises made to the victims and their family members towards relief and rehabilitation.

Surjit added that Rs 2 lakh cash assistance promised by the Centre, which was to be disbursed through the state government, had remained elusive and red cards of more than 6,000 eligible riot victims and their dependents across the state had still not been made due to callousness of the district authorities.

Charging the government with rubbing slat on the wounds of the riot victims, he said the district administration had evicted 52 occupants from PUDA flats in Dugri and in spite of the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court alternative flats had not been allotted to the beneficiaries. Not only this, the government had failed to take any action of the HC directions handed down in 2012 to provide a residential flat each to red card-holding riot victims or their family members, he added.

Surjit also charged the Punjab Government with backing out from its promise of providing a one-time grant of Rs 5 lakh to the riot victims for their resettlement.

Expressing his regret, he said the SIT constituted by the Centre more than two years ago had yielded no result like the previous inquiry commissions and SITs while the perpetrators of crime against the Sikh community were roaming out freely. — OC