No money yet for kin of A’bad blasts victims

GANDHINAGAR: One month after the serial blasts in Ahmedabad, families of the victims are still to receive compensation. The central and state governments are blaming each other for the failure to hand over the compensation promised by prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The PM had earlier announced that Rs3.5lakh would be given to the kin of the blasts victims.

Leader of the opposition in the Gujarat assembly, Shakti Singh Gohil, said, “The state government has not furnished the details of the blast victims’ families. It is doing this intentionally to gain political mileage. If the state government wishes to give the compensation announced by the Centre, it can always resort to the contingency fund set up by the Centre.”

“Congress took the initiative in helping the victims’ families, by giving them Rs1lakh from the party fund,” he said.

Jaynarayan Vyas, spokesperson of the state government and cabinet minister, opposed Gohil’s claims, saying, “I would not like to make any political statement at this time. The Centre had asked the district collector to submit details of the bank accounts of the victims’ families. Many do not have bank accounts, while some heirs of the victims are minors.

The Centre could have paid the compensation immediately through a draft, like the state government did in the case of direct descendants. It has the power to order the district collector, who is a civil servant.”