10 states yet to file compliance report on compensation to 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims

Aksheev Thakur

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New Delhi, March 13

It is more than 39 years since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, but the 10 states which saw a big impact of the carnage are yet to file a compliance report regarding the compensation being paid to the victims to the National Commission for Minorities (NCM).

In October 2023, the NCM directed the chief secretaries, home secretaries and minority department secretaries of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and eight other states on action taken by them for granting compensation to the victims.

Chairman of the NCM Iqbal Singh Lalpura told The Tribune that though states had filed the action taken report (ATR,) there was no compliance report. “Without the compliance report there is no point in filing the ATRs. We talk to the states every month and tell them to expedite the process of paying compensation. We are collecting information,” he said.

“In Jammu and Kashmir, five people had died in the riots, but the authorities there say they do not have the address of the families. So the states have to coordinate among themselves and compensate them. In Delhi, 2,732 Sikhs were killed in the riots. Of that, only 14 of their kin have got jobs so far,” he added.

The states have to comply with the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs dated January 16, 2006, and December 15, 2014, for granting compensation and relief to the victims.

Lalpura had earlier brought it to the notice of the states that approximately 22,000 families of victims of the 1984 riots migrated to Punjab from other states, who are still living here, had to be paid a rehabilitation grant as well.

The Ministry of Home Affairs in 2006 introduced a rehabilitation package to provide relief to the victims. Under the scheme an ex gratia payment of Rs 3.5 lakh was to be given in case of death and Rs 1.25 lakh in case of injuries. The scheme also contained a provision for the state governments to grant pension to the widows and old parents of death victims at the uniform rate of Rs 2,500 per month for life. The expenditure on payment of pension was to be borne by the state governments. The scheme ended on December 31, 2014,and the Centre in 2014 introduced another scheme for payment of enhanced compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased persons.

States like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi have to submit the compliance report.