Even evidence of ownership lost in violence
Many applicants said they had lost all documents when their houses and shops were ransacked and set on fire by armed mobs. Officials are now trying to figure out alternatives
NEW DELHI: Viplab Rai closed his register, stood up and gently asked the people in front of his desk to form a queue. It was around 2pm on Sunday, and a large crowd had gathered outside the makeshift tent — set up as a help desk for residents of riot-hit areas in north-east Delhi — at the district administration headquarters in Nand Nagri.
The people in the crowd were riot victims who sought help from Rai , an official deployed at the Nand Nagri help desk, and his colleagues in filing applications for the ex gratia compensation announced by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal last week. But a challenge confronted them: what documents would they verify?
Several applicants said they lost all documents when their houses and shops were ransacked and set on fire by armed mobs that were on a rampage for over three days in a full-blown communal riot, which has left at least 42 persons dead and over 350 injured.
Ex gratia refers to financial aid given out as moral obligation rather than being mandated by law. By 2pm on Sunday, the help desk in Nand Nagri had received 72 applications — from those whose relatives were injured, houses set ablaze, shops ransacked and vehicles torched.
“For the relatives of the dead and the ones recovering from injuries in the hospitals, the verification will be easy. In the absence of any documents, hospital papers such as medical reports, the diary entries of police officials in emergency rooms and discharge slips will suffice. The challenge is with verifying applicants who fled their homes and shop when those were ransacked and set on fire,” said an official in the northeast district magistrate’s office.
Rai and his colleagues recalled how the first set of applicants who had approached the help desk were the ones who were lucky enough to have some of their documents intact — voter ID cards, ration cards, Aadhaar cards, driver’s licenses and electricity bills were the most common papers people produced. “Some people even produced partially damaged documents, which we accepted as long as the details were decipherable,” Rai said.
But then came a large number of people who had lost it all, he said, adding, “Many people who could produce phone numbers that were linked with Aadhaar could not recall the date of birth they mentioned on official documents. This is a very common problem, especially in poor and backward localities.”
But the officials did not lose hope. A quick meeting was organised late on Saturday evening, some briefings followed, and the candidates were back at the help desks, they recalled. One of the things they decided was to ask for the unique numbers assigned to electricity meters. The unique number (known as CA number) discloses details of persons to whom the separate connection was issued — and helps establish the link between claimant and residence.
“Every household which has a power connection will have a meter, and every meter has a unique number. People said they had lost their power bills. So, the idea was to send a civil defence volunteer with them and get the meters checked,” said a district official.
The idea, however, did not work out after a first few successful cases, said an official engaged in the relief drive.
In most houses that were torched, the damage was so intense that electricity meters were blown into smithereens, said a sub-divisional magistrate who was on a field survey in riothit areas on Sunday. He further said, “There will be review meetings in which challenges faced, like the one regarding documents, will be discussed, and alternatives proposed. We have to help people in such bad times.”
District magistrate (northeast Delhi) Shashi Kaushal said relief measures and compensation are priority issues and she would chair a review meeting with all officers to find solutions on each issue.
On Thursday, chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal announced a compensation of ₹10 lakh to families of those killed in the violence, wherein ₹1 lakh ex gratia will be given to the family immediately and ₹9 lakh after due documentation.
For damage suffered by residential units, compensation of ₹5 lakh (₹1 lakh to be divided among tenants and ₹4 lakh for house owners) was announced.
For substantial damage to residential units, the compensation was ₹2.5 Lakh (₹50,000 to be divided among tenants and ₹2 lakh for house owners).
For minor damage to residential units, victims will be given ₹15,000; for uninsured commercial units, a maximum compensation of ₹5 lakh was declared; and for loss of cattle, ₹5,000 per animal, the government said.
Kejriwal further said the immediate relief of ₹25,000 will be released to a household in case of substantial or total damage to property. This amount shall be adjusted from the final compensation payment, he had said.
The government also set up nine relief camps and on Sunday sent relief materials such as packaged water and essential food articles packed in trucks in some riot-hit localities.