After backing him for 25 yrs,riot victims to gherao Badal on Oct 12

“The Badal government has been fooling us for the past 25 years. The Central government has still helped us by giving grants worth Rs 440 crore for 22,000 riot victim families,” said Association President Surjit Singh. “But the state has done nothing. It has not even allotted flats to the victims,which was one of its promise,” he added. Of the Rs 440 crore granted by the Centre,Rs 220 crore is still lying unused as relief has been disbursed to only 15,200 families till now.

Each family has been given Rs 2 lakh as grant.

The Danga Peerat Association has consistently criticised the Congress for the 1984 riots and the displacement of thousands of Sikhs,and the latest development marks a major shift of stance. Association member Amarjit Singh Rajpal said,“We will be gheraoing the CM; more than 10,000 people will reach Mohali on October 12. He (Badal) always made us promises in election manifestoes and won elections on our support. But he has done nothing for us.”

Danga Peerat Association members had been demanding flats for the riot victims and,according to recent High Court orders,persons who applied in the year 2001 have to be allotted flats in Ludhiana. DC Rahul Tiwari said,“We received 2,300 applications and out of these only 1,150 have all documents cleared. The rest were found not to be living at the addresses mentioned in the applications. We have called people at a camp tomorrow to register their complaints or bring the latest residential documents.”

However Surjit Singh said,“We will be boycotting tomorrow’s camp. The victims who were allotted red cards after 2001 have not come under this flat allotment scheme and,hence,we want everyone to be included. Otherwise,none of us will go to the camp.”

Meanwhile,more than 100 residents staged a dharna outside the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority(GLADA) office as they had deposited the 10 per cent earnest money for allotment of LIG flats at Dugri but the allotment has not been carried out till date. Amarjit Singh Chawla,one of the applicants said,“A total of 84 flats are located in Dugri while applications were filed by 125 people. We fear that these will be allotted to riot victims and,hence,we staged a dharna. We deposited the money more than five years ago.”