Gujarat gets 4 weeks to decide on jobs for riot victims’ kin

The Gujarat high court on Thursday gave four weeks' time to the state government to decide on giving jobs on compassionate grounds to family members of people killed in the riots of 2002.

A bench comprising chief justice SJ Mukhopadhaya and justice KM Thaker allowed more time to the state following government counsel PK Jani's submission that the state had formed a three-member committee to chalk out a strategy for appointments on compassionate grounds.

Earlier, the central government had told the court that disbursing additional funds for compensation to a batch of recently identified riot victims would require parliament's sanction as currently there was no budgetary provision for the funds.

The Union government had earlier disbursed funds for the victims but allocation of additional funds was sought by the state upon identification of other victims of the riots.