By TCN News
Lucknow: The 2 member CPIM Relief Committee for Muzaffarnagar comprising of Comrades DP Singh and Subhashini Ali visited Muzaffarnagar on the 7th and 8th December. Just before their visit, on the 6th, shocking reports of the district administration attempting to forcibly evict the riot affected from relief camps were received from those in charge of the camp at Loi and were also widely covered by the electronic and print media. Along with the CPIM national leadership, the Relief Committee members contacted the District Magistrate and also prominent Samajwadi Party leaders and, as a result, the police force and administrative officers left the Loi Camp. Unfortunately, in the ealy morning, they succeeded in dismantling a smaller camp at village Dhandera, PS Sikheda. About 25 families were left without shelter. Many of them lost their cots and tents because the administration took them away. They have now been forced to find shelter with people in the neighbourhood and in other camps.
After the committee members reached Muzaffarnagar, they met many of those who are actively organising the relief camps, lawyers, social workers and others. The information that they were given is very disturbing. The conditions in the camp are extremely precarious and, despite repeated requests, the State Government is not providing any essential services, medical, sanitary etc. or rations etc. Its entire emphasis is on trying to get the victims to leave the camps.
In one camp at Jaula, more than 50 bables have been born since the first week of September. They have been delivered by women in the camps or in private nursing homes. There has been no Govt. help whatsoever and this is true of all the camps. There are reports of several children, especially infants, dying in the camps due to the cold. One child died on the 6th December at Loi camp.
Payment of compensation to the dependants of those killed has been made but it is being denied to dependants of those who have been missing since the 8th September. The SP Govt. in 1995 had paid compensation to the dependants of 5 persons in Kanpur whose bodies were never recovered and recently the Uttarakhand Govt. has paid a similar compensation. In both cases, those receiving the compensation have signed affidavits that if the missing persons return, they will give back the amount received but, in the case of Muzaffarnagar, this precedent is not being followed. The 5 lacs compensation being paid to those who are homeless is also not being done in a fair and just manner. Many are being denied this amount all together and, in other cases, extended families of parents and several sons with their own families are being treated as one unit. There are also cases of persons who have not been able to go to the police station to register cases of arson because of fear and threats. The administration has adopted a very negative approach to these genuine problems.
Another very disturbing feature that was reported concerned the action or lack of taken against those accused to murder and rape. Till date, not a single accused of rape or gang rape has been arrested. Many of those accused of murder have also not been arrested. Those who have, have all been released on bail by the District Court within a few weeks of their arrests. All this has, naturally, made people extremely reluctant to return to their villages and their faith in the administration and judiciary is at an all-time low.