New Delhi, August 13
In line with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurances, the Home Ministry today constituted two official committees to go into the “adequacy and uniformity” of compensation and “providing additional employment” to the surviving family members of those killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
However, the Home Ministry remained in a fix and decided to rely heavily on the Law Ministry’s opinion on the “reopening” of cases against those named in the Nanavati Commission report, including Congress MPs Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar and scores of police officers.
While one committee will go into the “adequacy and uniformity” of compensation given to the surviving family members of those killed in riots, the other will deal with the issue of “providing additional livelihood support and employment”, Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal said here.
The first committee will be headed by K.P. Singh, Special Secretary in the Home Ministry, and comprise Secretaries in charge of relief in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chhattishgarh and representatives of the Finance Ministry.
Mr Duggal said the terms of reference of the committee include examination of adequacy and uniformity of compensation given to next of kin of those killed, and additional compensation to be given to bring about
uniformity and possible enhancement. The committee, which has been asked to complete its task in two months, will also oversee
implementation of payment of additional compensation, the Home Secretary said.
The second committee will be headed by D.K. Shankaran, Secretary, Border Management in the Home Ministry, and will consist of Home Secretaries of the states where Sikhs were killed as well as Punjab where several victims have been rehabilitated, representatives of Finance Ministry and Joint Secretary in charge of police in the Home Ministry.
Mr Duggal said the committee would look into the adequacy of relief and rehabilitation measures given to the riot victims by various states and Union Territories, work out details of additional relief in terms of livelihood support and employment to eligible family members required to be given now (this will include possibility of employment in central para-military forces).
“Since para-military forces are under the jurisdiction of the Central Government, we have asked the committee to look into the possibility of relaxing the recruitment norms to provide employment to the needy from the riot affected families,” Mr Duggal said adding “it doesn’t mean the government will not explore the possibility of their employment in other departments, PSUs, banks, etc.”
The committee, which has also been given two months to complete its work, will lay down criteria for providing employment and other relief measures and also oversee implementation of additional relief measures required.
On further probe against politicians, who have been adversely commented upon by the commission, Mr Duggal remained non-committal about the kind of probe the Centre would order.
“I can’t commit now on which agency will probe... it could be by the CBI or the Riot Cell of the Delhi police, which had previously undertaken prosecution in 1984 riot cases,” he said.
However, he said, the government would soon proceed against politicians who had been adversely commented upon by the Nanavati Commission.
“Action will be on the basis of the adverse inference drawn against politicians by the commission, the Action Taken Report of the government and assurances given by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister in Parliament,” Mr Duggal said.
