Badal writes to PM on '84 riot victims plight

Chandigarh, Mar 12 (UNI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Parkash Singh Badal has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and put an end to the ''humilation and harassment of November 84 riot victims at the hands of the Punjab Government.'' He demanded that all red cardholders who had applied, must be given compensation immediately as announced by the Union Government on the recommendations of the Shankaran committee. He also demanded that the date for filing claims be extended to enable other to apply.

In a letter sent to the Prime Minister today, Mr Badal alleged that the Punjab government was creating hurdles in the release of compensation to the red cardholders. Strongly alleging bias in the working of the Punjab government, he said that on one hand the state government was delaying compensation as announced by the Union Government on the recommendations of the Shankaran committee and on the other, it has taken a decision to withdraw all facilities which were provided by the previous SAD-BJP government.

Mr Badal termed this action of the state government as ''malafide and politically motivated.'' He informed Dr Singh that there were 22,000 red card holders in Punjab, on the basis of which, the Union Government had declared a package of 440 crores.

''Out of the total red card holders only 10,000 had applied for compensation. This means the actual number of applicants was far less than the total number of red card holders in the state and as such there should be no difficulty in the distribution of compensation,'' he added.

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