Irregularities in compensation: Danga Peerat Society splits

“Already 2,193 fake cases have been given compensation by the state government and now they are ready to give compensation to a few others without proper verification of documents. Our members are also hand in glove with them,so we decided to raise our voice against the illegal activities,” a member of the new group said.

Interestingly,the documents shown by the new welfare society say that the Union Home ministry has asked the state government to send a complete inquiry report of the compensation given to a total 2,193 riot victim families from 2007 onwards. Each family was given Rs 2 lakh compensation,as announced by the Centre,allegedly on the basis of fake documents.

A letter to this effect was issued in February to the Punjab Chief Secretary after a delegation of riot victims from Ludhiana submitted a written complaint about the alleged ‘fake’ cases along with some documents.

However,the inquiry has made no headway but the state government is all set to issue 678 new red cards in Ludhiana soon. Surjit Singh Saluja,vice-chairman of the Sikh Danga Peerat Welfare Society,said,“The Central government had sent compensation for 22,000 families after the state sent a report after issuing red cards to families till 2001. Later,only 10,600 families were given compensation after the complete verification was done.”

Gurdev Singh said,“The present government is busy in making new red cards. However,when we sought information under the RTI Act from the Home ministry,they claimed that no permission has been given by them to make new red cards,so how will state claim the compensation.” General Secretary Sukhbir Singh said: “We know at least 50 cases of those who have submitted fake identification documents and are in the process of getting the red cards and later compensation. This needs to be checked.”

‘Cong backing group’
Danga Peerat Welfare Society president Surjit Singh said: “A few of the members have got support from the Congress and hence they have started speaking against their own colleagues. They went to attend the Sikh convention organised by the Saran group and when we stopped them,they started raising allegations against us.”

‘Many pleas rejected’
Information revealed that a total of 3,400 applications were received from Ludhiana,out of which 678 have been identified for compensation. SDM Prem Chand said,“All cases have been verified and that’s why a huge number have been rejected.”

‘Touts hired to get compensation’
Harcharan Singh Channi,president of the new group, said: “Many applicants are not even staying in Punjab but they have claimed Rs 2 lakh compensation. Their id proofs can be checked and we can prove the nexus. Touts have been hired,who are given 50 per cent of the relief amount.”