Grant Of Relief

Considering the unprecedented number of casualties and the extent of damage, the Delhi Administration with the approval of the Central Government, had appointed a Relief Commissioner with effect from 4-11-84 vide its order No.F.8/1/84-SI of 5th November 1984. The Delhi Administration also detailed 100 senior officers for duty for making assessment of relief / rehabilitation assistance required. For this purpose Delhi was divided into four zones name West, East, Central, North / New Delhi. Each zone was placed under the control of an ADM / Joint Secretary in the Delhi Administration wife publicity was also given through the medium of Radio and T.V. and Press for inviting claims. The scale of relief was decide by the M.H.A. vide their letter No.13030/1/84 dated 6-11-84 as given below:-

The procedure adopted was as follows. Claims were obtained in the prescribed form No. R-I and R-II from the victims’ next of kin. The Sector Officers who were of gazetted ranks were then asked to verify the genuineness of the claim. These R-I and R-II forms were also distributed in the various relief camps, 12 of which were set up at that time. Sector Officers were made the sanctioning authority for the relief. Since the conditions remained disturbed for sometime and also in order to ensure early settlement of claims, most claims were decided on the basis of one or two local witnesses and sometime on the statement of the claimant alone. This was done because of the fact that many of the victims could not either file a FIR or because the FIRs were allegedly not registered by the police. Therefore, initially, death certificates / FIRs were not considered essential while considering the claims. Approximately1700 claims were settled by March, 1985 and a total of approximately Rs.1.7 crores was paid to the next of kin. The scrutiny for the claims after July-August, 1985 was made more rigorous and death certificates, FIRs and a copy of the ration card were required as part of documentary evidence. In January, 1986 the M.H.A. announced the enhancement of the compensation in death cases by another Rs.10,000/- a total of Rs.20,000/- in each case.

As on date, the Relief Commissioner’s office has verified a total of 2426 cases of deaths in the Union Territory (a detailed check by this Committee has however shown that there are 21 cases of duplication). However, in some cases the compensation has not been collected. The present position in regard to payment of relief is as follows:-

In addition to the monetary help, the Delhi Administration also decided to allot DDA flats at reserve prices to the widows. The flats were allotted on payment of an initial instalment of Rs.1,000/-. A total of 942 flats were allotted to the widows against this scheme. It was also decided that any widow who got married would get Rs.5,000/- and a daughter of the widow who got married would be given Rs.3,000/- after proper verification. Three widows who married were extended this benefit and Rs.3,000/- each was given in 48 cases of daughter’s marriage.

Efforts were also made to provide training to the widows to enable them to stand on their own feet. These efforts were made by the Government as well as voluntary agencies. Under the NORAD scheme, the National Association of Young Enterprises were asked to give training / employment to 200 widows. During the 9 months training each widow was given a stipend of Rs.250/- per month. However, while the training was imparted, it did not serve much purpose because afterwards proper jobs could not be found for widows.

Efforts were further made to provide jobs to eligible widows. Initially offers of jobs as anganwadi workers at a rate of Rs.250/-p.m. were made to 117 widows / dependents but only 19 widows / dependents responded to it.

In 1986 an attempt was made to find out the number of widows or their wards who would require employment. Initially 300 widows and their wards came forward to fill in the application form for employment. The Lt. Governor vide his letter U.O. No.86/LG/86/914-30 dated 7-3-86 asked various Government Departments had agencies of Delhi Administration to identify posts for the employment of these widows. He also granted age relaxation and relaxation in qualifications in all the case vide U.O. No.313/LG/86/932 dated 29-5-86 from Raj Niwas.

A number of voluntary agencies also gave financial assistance as well as training to the widows. The Directorate of Social Welfare ran three work centers to National Association of Young Enterprises on 16-2-86. NAYE trained 57 widows till 15-9-86. The training was in knitting and stitching. The stipend was Rs.250/- per month per widow. Besides Mata Gujari and Nishkam trained 25 widows each. Church Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) trained 50 widows at the end of the training gave each of them one knitting machine. At the moment, in Tilak Vihar, Nishkam, Saurachua and Sikh Women’s Association are functioning on a Employment - cum - Training Project employing 40, 7 and 4 widows respectively.

Government agencies and departments have till date employed 292 widows. However, 371 offer letters have been issued. The details are shown below:-

The Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation employed some 50 widows in the Masala Grinding and Packaging. This was stopped for two months because of objection from the Agmark authorities which has been sorted out now. Some 35 widows are employed by DSCSC in sanitary and packaging in their Safdarjang Flyover Godown.

The DDA (slums) wing have also allotted some shops and stalls in Tilak Vihar to the widows, the details of which are as under:-

The date of draw for allotment was on 13-12-86. The conditions laid down by the DDA are that the widows should give an affidavit to the effect that they have not subsequently married and have not got Government jobs.

The Relief Commissioner had written to some private companies as well as public sector undertakings to identify posts for these widows. One M/s Pure Drinks have responded by offering employment to 12 widows but they have not clarified the nature of jobs.