Delhi Akalis meet PM, urge aid release for 1984-riot victims

New Delhi, June 21 (UNI): An Akali delegation today met the Prime Minister and requested immediate release of the court-awarded compensation of Rs 123,000 each to the injured victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Led by Akali Dal (Santokh Singh) president Manjit Singh, the delegation urged Dr Manmohan Singh's intervention over the Delhi High Court's May directions to the government.

"It is the bounden duty and responsibility of the State to secure and safeguard the life and liberty of an individual from mob violence," Justice Gita Mittal had said in her May judgement, expected to benefit some 2,800 Sikhs injured during the riots in the capital following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The High Court had asked the government to pay the compensation within a month to one Sikh man injured in an attack by a mob, which killed seven others at Tuglaqabad Railway Station on November 1984.

In order to ensure parity, Justice Mittal ordered that all the 1984-riot injured be paid the increased amount.

"We request you to expedite the release of the compensation money," Manjit Singh, also a senior member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), said in his request to the Prime Minister today.

In his first meeting with the Prime Minister after launching the Akali Dal (Santokh Singh), the Sikh leader also requested full implementation of Punjabi's second official status in Delhi, which he said had been delayed since the language received the special designation in 2003.

Besides, he urged Dr Singh's intervention in resolving the problem faced by Sikh pupils in France because of the French secularity law banning overt religious symbols, including turbans, in class.