State poised to implement riot report soon

State poised to implement riot report soon
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, AUG 7: The Congress-led Democratic Front will soon initiate steps to implement the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission, which probed the 1992-93 communal riots, following stringent observations of the Supreme Court.

``The Cabinet will consider the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission as well as the Action Taken Report (ATR) tomorrow. If the report is to be implemented in letter and spirit, then the ATR drafted by the esrtwhile Sena-BJP Government will have to be rejected and a fresh proposal will have to be submitted to the Supreme Court,'' a senior official said.

Meanwhile, a high-level delegation comprising Labour Minister Hussain Dalwai, Yeshwant Chavan, Pushpa Mehta and A D Golandaz called on Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to press their demand for implementation of the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission.

The delegation demanded that immediate compensation be paid to the families of the missing persons, legal action against 31 indicted police officials and reopening of the 1,358 cases, which were closed during the Sena-BJP rule.

Two long years have passed since the tabling of the report, but no action was taken despite the fact the Congress in its manifesto, had specifically promised that if it comes to power, it will implement the report in toto. ``However, there seems to have been little effort made in that direction. The spurious plea of opening of old wounds will just not wash. On the contrary, the wound inflicted by those events can never heal until justice is done,'' the delegation told the Chief Minister.

They said while the Supreme Court's observations on July 21 have renewed their hopes, the dismissal of the case against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has given rise to serious apprehensions. ``The apex court has directed the State Government to file an affidavit detailing what action has been taken on the report and also to indicate the further plan of action. This is an unique opportunity for the government to prove commitment to the report's implementation. Under such circumstances, the ATR drafted by the erstwhile Sena-BJP government should not only be rejected, but it should not even remain on record,'' they added.

They told the Chief Minister that the dismissal of the Thackeray case has led people to believe that the Government's hands have been weakened even in implementing the commission's report. ``That is because of the popular perception that acting upon the report means arresting Thackeray. But this is just not so. In fact, we are shocked to learn from the home department that the government is planning to reopen only 112 cases and act against only two policemen,'' they pointed out.

They also asked the Government to submit a time-bound action plan to implement the recommendations of the commission before the Supreme Court.