The AAP government is all set to outwit the Centre by planning to pay an additional amount of Rs 5 lakh as compensation to each of the affected families of the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage from November 1 in the national capital. With the BJP government at the Centre yet to release any additional funds, the Kejriwal administration has decided to immediately pay the additional compensation from the state’s own coffers.
A highly-placed source said that the AAP government has reportedly identified 2,600 families who would be paid additional compensation, which will cost Rs 130 crore. Both chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia will personally distribute the cheques to the affected families. The process of distribution will begin from November 1, exactly 31 years after the massacres took place in the city.
Prior to the Delhi Assembly polls, the BJP had announced that each riot-affected family would be provided an additional compensation of Rs 5 lakh. Union home minister Rajnath Singh had even distributed compensation cheques to some families which had created a political storm in the city. The ongoing tussle between the Centre and the AAP government over a host of issues had taken its toll on the disbursement of the additional compensation with neither ready to pay the said amount. While the AAP government had already disbursed additional compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of the 143 riot-affected families, it had no clarity on how it could pay the money to the remaining 2,600-odd families for want of adequate funds.
With the city Cabinet’s decision that it would pay the money from its own kitty even before it receives the funds from the Centre, the AAP government is now gearing up to make the payments.
