Govt promises justice to victims of Paonta riots
Express News Service Posted online: Tue Mar 29 2011, 05:01 hrs
Shimla : The Himachal government today assured full justice to the
families affected by mob violence at Paonta, which later took the
colour of caste violence, resulting in three deaths and burning of
some houses of persons belonging to the Dalit community.
Making a suo-motu statement in the state Assembly, which resumed its
sittings after a 10-day recess, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said
the government has already set up a police investigation team and
registered FIRs .
"We have invoked provisions of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (
Prevention) of Atrocities Act. No one involved in the crimes will be
spared", he announced even as the Opposition insisted on a judicial
probed headed by a sitting judge of the High Court.
Dhumal also defended Chief Parliamentary Secretary and sitting Paonta
MLA Sukh Ram Chaudhry, who had come under attack from Congress for his
"partisan" role and statements hurting the rival community. Chaudhry
belongs to OBC community and three youths, who died after being
allegedly stabbed by some Dalit youths, also belonged to his community
— Bahati.
"You (Opposition) can very well know what could be his state of mind
when surrounded by 5,000 to 6,000 persons of the same community after
death of three youths. Further, there were reports of huge crowds of
Dalit (Valmikis) community storming Paonta. The whole atmosphere was
of terror and panic," Dhumal said.
Congress MLAs led by Kaul Singh Thakur, Gangu Ram Musafir and Harsh
Vardan Chauhan claimed that the police had totally failed to prevent
the violence and acted in a casual manner. "Why were the OBC community
allowed to pick up the bodies of the youths from police custody and
then bring these on the highway for protest? Moreover, a responsible
person like Sukh Ram Chaudhry went on making irresponsible statements.
Can you (CM) tell him to use restraint?" Thakur said.
Gangu Ram Musafir, a former Speaker, said no compensation so far has
been paid to the families who had fled away from the area after
burning of their houses. Even the families of the victims of stabbing
had not been granted any relief. Harsh Vardan Chauhan alleged that
there have been serious crime cases like rapes, which the police have
not investigated. Paonta's situation has gone from bad to worse in
these years, he said.
Dhumal, however, tried to pacify the opposition assuring that the
government was neither taking any side nor has made a firm opinion as
to what really went wrong. "It was a rivalry of youths, which took the
shape of caste violence and terror among the two communities. The
government is trying to handle it in a manner which does not aggravate
things." My appeal to the Opposition is to wait for the outcome of
investigations instead of asking for an inquiry by a high court
judge," he proposed.
Earlier Dhumal also gave a full account of the happenings at Paonta.He
informed that a delegation of the National SC/SC Commission led by its
vice-Chairman Raj Kumar Vekra and National Safai Karamchari Commission
had visited Nahan and met officials. " They were briefed about the
happenings and sets taken to restore normalcy and also action taken
against the accused persons.They also expressed satisfaction", Chief
minister told the House.
Dhumal said till now 18 families, who had left their houses in fear of
attacks,have also returned and there is no untoward incident for past
three days.
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