Chandigarh, October 24
The Haryana Government, which is increasingly coming under pressure from various political parties over the lynching of five Dalits in Jhajjar district on October 15, today announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to next of kin of the deceased.

It may be recalled that earlier Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala had announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to the bereaved families. However, the bereaved families had snubbed the Deputy Speaker of the Haryana Assembly, Mr Gopi Chand Gehlot, when he had gone to deliver the cheques to them. The families had refused to accept the cheques and had, instead, demanded action against the guilty.

The bereaved families, however, accepted Rs 1 lakh each from Congress President Sonia Gandhi the same day they had refused to accept the cheques from Mr Gehlot.

The decision to increase the compensation to the bereaved families was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet held here today. It was also decided to give employment to next of kin of the deceased. The Cabinet also decided not to celebrate Diwali officially this year due to the Jhajjar incident.

KARNAL: To outmanoeuvre the opposition parties, especially the Congress in Haryana, the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, on Thursday agreed to an inquiry by “any agency” in the Dulina incidents if the Opposition was not satisfied with a Commissioner-level inquiry.

Mr Chautala was talking to mediapersons here after visiting the house of a deceased Kailash Chander.

The HPCC chief, Mr Bhajan Lal, and the secretary of the AICC, Mr Hanumantha Rao, had demanded a CBI probe into the Dulina killings here on Wednesday after visiting the house of Kailash Chand.

Mr Chautala said nobody had made a demand for an inquiry before an inquiry was ordered by the state government on its own to unravel the mystery surrounding the incidents.

GURGAON: A day before the scheduled visit of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and national general secretary of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati to address a public meeting in protest against the Dulina incident in which five Dalits were killed, Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala made a sudden visit to the families of the deceased to express his condolences.

Four of the five Dalits killed at Dulina by a mob on Dasehra are natives of Gurgaon district — two of them from Badshapur, one from Akleempur and one from Teekli.

Mr Chautala visited the bereaved families here and at Akleempur and Teekli and assured them of justice.

PANCHKULA: The North India Scheduled Castes Retired Officers Social Forum, Panchkula, has submitted memoranda to various dignitaries, including the President, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Haryana Governor, the Chief Minister, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission and the Chairman of the National Commission for SCs and STs, protesting against the incident.

The forum demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident and the registration of a criminal case against the police personnel for dereliction of their duties.