Hondh-Chillar victims to get more compensation

Chandigarh: More than three decades after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Haryana government has finally moved to give them additional compensation.

Haryana additional chief secretary (home) Ram Niwas told TOI on Friday that the government would soon disburse about Rs 12 crore as compensation to the families of the riot victims belonging to Pataudi and Gurgaon. Official sources said the file, approved by the state home department, would be sent to the finance department for release of funds after a formal approval from the chief minister.

Manwinder Singh Giaspur, an engineer who had raised the Hondh Chillar issue after posting photographs on a social networking site in 2011, said as many as 47 persons had lost their lives during the riots in Pataudi and Gurgaon. However, he said, petitions were filed before the Justice T P Garg Commission, which was set up to probe into deaths during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Haryana, in connection with 46 casualties.

Sources said the commission had filed the report to government few months back, but it was not made public yet. "Over 80 persons had filed 240 petitions, stating their sufferings and losses before the commission. In all, 17 persons were injured," said Giaspur.

According to Giaspur, the government has already disbursed the additional compensation amount of about Rs 10 crore to family members of the victims in Hondh Chillar village of Rewari district.

In connection with Hondh Chillar, the commission set up by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in 2011 submitted its report to CM Manohar Lal Khattar in 2015. It had recommended payment of additional Rs 20 lakh over and above the amount already paid (which is Rs 7 lakh on three occasions spreading over a period of 23 years from 1984-85 to 2006-07) to the claimants of 31 deceased and a sum of Rs 25 lakh to the widow of lone Army man Inderjit Singh as she was not paid any amount whatsoever by way of compensation earlier.

In Hondh Chillar village, 32 Sikhs were burnt alive and their houses were set afire by a mob during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Giaspur had lost his job in 2011 even though the employer Gurgaon-based company had denied it had anything to do with his involvement in exposing the case. Later, the Hondh Chillar carnage was given musical expression by Punjabi singer and lyricist Raj Kakra in a video titled 'November 1984 massacre of Sikhs.'