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ShareAhmedabad, Ahmedabad: An issue of 'victimisation of riot victims' has come before the Gujarat High Court after the local civic authorities razed down houses built for the 2002 riot victims at the Chandola lake. The houses were built by various NGOs as part of their effort to rehabilitate the riot affected. The civic authorities razed 329 dwellings including 172 houses leaving some 1800 people homeless. The buildings were demolished on November 3.
A bench headed by acting chief justice MS Shah has directed that the municipal commissioner and police commissioner of Ahmedabad be made respondents in the case and posted the case for further hearing on November 30.
Following the recent demolition, Gagan Shetty, member of special monitoring group appointed by the National Human rights commission, moved an affidavit before the high court highlighting the high-handedness of the government authority. Amit Panchal and Shivani Rajpurohit, counsels for Shetty, submitted that the state government was required to disburse the compensation amount of Rs262.44 crore received from the Centre. "But no relief has been granted, particularly in cases of uninsured commercial and industrial property, as was decided by Centre" said the counsels.
They also submitted that on November 3, without any prior notice, the AMC began demolishing the houses of riot affected muslims. "Some 172 houses in Siyasat Nagar Colony, where the riot victims were rehabilitated by an NGO, a madrasa and a school at Chandola lake were demolished," said the counsel. The counsels further said that the structures were razed to further victimise the riot affected.
