Modi not fulfilling duty towards riot-hit: NCM

NEW DELHI: In its stinging observations on the Modi adminstration over the rehabilitation of the families hit by the 2002 riots, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has found that the government has not been able to create a conducive atmosphere for them to leave camps and return to their homes.

An NCM team that visited Gujarat last week to investigate a complaint regarding the condition of more than 5,000 riot-hit families in make-shift camps noted that the state government has made no attempts to facilitate their safe return to their homes. Also, the NCM rejected the state government’s “view” that the riot-affected people were voluntarily living in rehabilitation camps.

“In view of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the commission finds this viewpoint untenable and evasive of a government’s basic responsibility,” the NCM said after the visit to Gujarat of its vice-chairman Michel Pinto and members Dileep Padagaonkar and Zoya Hasan.

The religious rights watchdog, which is submitting its report and recommendations to the Centre on the condition of the riot-displaced people in Gujarat, has found that the state government is not “fulfilling” its constitutional responsibility in this regard.

“... even four-and-a-half years after the riots, it has not been able to create an atmosphere in which those displaced by the riots can return to their homes,” the NCM noted. The rehabilitation camps, it said, lacked basic facilities, such as potable water, sanitation, health care, approach roads and schools.

Also, it noted that an overwhelming number of riot-displaced families had no ration cards. “The few who do have them are in the above-poverty-line category and their request for below-poverty-line ration cards has been repeatedly turned down, as a result they are unable to obtain foodgrains, cereals and kerosene at subsidised rates,” the NCM said.

The NCM members visited 17 of the 46 rehabilitation camps in Gujarat and also held discussions with Chief Minister Narendra Modi and state government officials, the commission said.

They noted that non-availability of BPL ration cards has compounded hardships of riot-hit families most of whom the NCM said now subsist on daily wages.