Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 14: Even as the Government has released Rs 5 crores for disbursement of relief among the shopkeepers and other business establishment owners, who had suffered massive losses in August 9 vandalism in Kishtwar, the distribution of compensation has reportedly hit a roadblock due to a long set of formalities imposed by the district administration as pre-conditions for releasing the amount.
The administration, however, didn’t feel that pre-conditions laid down by the district authorities for payment of relief were any harassment to the traders but claimed that they were part of “fool-proof measures” required to given relief only to the deserving persons.
As a section of the traders in Kishtwar and the BJP were up in arms against the administration for slapping conditions on the relief, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Shantmanu told the Excelsior that according to his reports the district authorities in Kishtwar had disbursed Rs 40 lakh worth relief among the victims of August 9 violence till last evening.
“We have reports that four traders have been given the maximum relief of Rs 5 lakh each. We have not received any complaint from the traders so far. There has been no harassment. The traders were being asked to fulfill some requirements to take the relief,” Shantmanu said, adding the Government has released Rs 5 crores for Kishtwar victims so far.
He added that the funds were no problem and more money would be released when first installment of Rs 5 crores was exhausted.
Shantmanu said the relief distribution was slightly being delayed due to completion of formalities. He added that assessment of damage suffered by the traders has been completed. Some of the traders had suffered damage up to the tune of Rs 27 lakh or Rs 25 lakh, he disclosed.
He said the traders were being given a relief of maximum of Rs 5 lakh or 50 per cent of the damages suffered by them. He pointed out that about 80 traders have suffered losses in August 9 violence in Kishtwar.
However, the BJP and a section of traders in Kishtwar were up in arms charging the administration with imposing conditions deliberately to deny relief to the traders of minorities.
The conditions imposed by the administration included 3 months VAT return including the latest return, Income Tax return, balance sheet of the Chartered Accountant, sale and purchase bills, layout plan from PWD Executive Engineer, ownership certificate and an affidavit stating that the relief being taken by the shopkeeper was genuine, which should be signed by a Judge.
The Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, however, said that these conditions didn’t apply to all the businessmen. The conditions varied from trader to trader, he added.
However, BJP spokesman and national executive member, Dr Jitendera Singh said the Government conditions smacked of deliberate motive to deny relief to the victims of minority community.
“This is a clear case of discrimination even in the matter of providing relief to victims of communal violence. The conditions were legally challengeable too as the Government was adopting double standards in disbursement of relief in Kishtwar and Shopian,” Dr Singh said.
Some of the traders spoke to the Excelsior on phone from Kishtwar and charged the administration with coming out with the conditions, which were not possible for them to fulfill.
“This was a deliberate attempt to deny us the relief,” they said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel