No state has provided 100% relief to 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims: Iqbal Singh Lalpura

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi January 11

No state can commit to having given 100 per cent compensation to the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Iqbal Singh Lalpura said.

Speaking to The Tribune, Lalpura stated that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government came to power, files related to compensation and delivering justice to the victims of the riots have started moving fast.

“While the special investigation team (SIT) is doing the job of bringing justice to the families of the victims, we will give them compensation which they truly deserve,” Lalpura said.

In October 2023, he had held a virtual meeting with the Chief Secretaries, Home Secretaries and Minority Department secretaries of Delhi, J and K, Haryana and seven other states on action taken by them for granting compensation to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims.

The NCM had asked the states to submit an action taken report (ATR) on compliance of orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs dated January 16, 2006, and December 15, 2014, for granting compensation and relief to the victims.

“The last date to give the ATR is January 15. We are waiting for the report to come. Once that comes, our plan of action is to give compensation to the victims who have not received it yet. They are even waiting for justice to be delivered. I had previously brought it to the notice of the states that approximately 22,000 families of victims of 1984 riots migrated to Punjab from other riot-affected states, and are still living there, had to be paid a rehabilitation grant as well,” he added.