Relatives of those killed in 2005 and 2008 blasts are yet to get their compensation, will the turn of Wednesday’s victims ever come?
Immediately after terror attacks, our ministers don’t waste a moment in announcing compensation and jobs for the victims, but thanks to the government apathy and machinery, the affected people have to run from pillar to post for years before promises are fulfilled.
The politicians, too, have probably understood the public anger this time around, and no high profile leader visited the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital — those injured in the Delhi high court blast have been admitted here — in Delhi on Thursday, especially after Rahul Gandhi was booed away on Wednesday.
“Three persons were killed in the Mehrauli blast on September 27, 2008 but the kin of those killed in the blast are yet to receive compensation. Government officials have misplaced their application forms. Now a week ago, I got them to fill the forms once again,” said Ashok Randhawa, president of the South Asian Forum for People Against Terror and Sarojini Nagar Mini Market Trader Association.
A shopkeeper at Sarojini Nagar market, Randhawa has devoted himself to the welfare of terror victims since the 2005 Diwali blasts there. Since then, he has been feeding victims of such tragedies.
He reached RML hospital around Wednesday noon and since then he has been distributing food and water to the victims and their relatives. He did similar service after the Merrut fire tragedy, Samjhauta train blasts, 2008 Delhi serial blasts and the Mehrauli blasts.
“When the Samjhauta Express blasts took place in 2007, the then union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced compensation and jobs for the kin of Indians killed in the attack. Though four and a half years have passed, not a single person has got a job. When we met senior railway board officials regarding this, they first asked us bring the written order which promised a job. Later they told us that Laluji was not the railway minister any more and politicians just make such announcements,” Randhawa told DNA.
In another case, one Indu Bansal lost her brother, brother’s wife and niece in the 2005 Diwali blasts but she has not got any compensation till now.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday announced a compensation of Rs4 lakh to the next of the kin of those killed, Rs 1.5 lakh in case of any death of a minor and Rs2 lakh for those permanently incapacitate in the blast outside the high court. But it remains to be seen whether the victims would get compensation anytime soon.
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