The Home Ministry is learnt to have decided to give Rs. 5 lakh additional compensation per head to the families of 3,325 people killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh violence.
The decision comes on the eve of three decades of the riots.
While the Home Ministry sources confirmed that the decision was taken on Thursday, a senior Ministry official in the know said that deliberations had been on for a long time.
Contentious issueThe decision, for which a formal announcement has not yet been made, could become a contentious issue, with three Assembly by-elections already announced in Delhi and Assembly elections in the near future a strong possibility.
The sum of Rs. 5 lakh each is over and above the previously announced compensation, sources said. In a related development, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh approved a proposal to enhance the compensation to civilian victims of communal, terrorist or Naxal violence from Rs 3 lakh to Rs.5 lakh.
“Till now the next of kin of persons killed or civilians who suffered permanent incapacitation as a result of such violence were paid Rs.3 lakh as per provisions of the Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims of Terrorist/Communal/Naxal violence since 2008,” the Ministry sources said.
