After facing threat and eviction from their village, aggrieved families hailing from SC of Pabnawa village in Kaithal district are facing another problem — opening new bank accounts to get compensation from the local administration there.
More than four dozen miscreants of the ‘Rod’ community, an upper caste, on April 13 not only ransacked 79 houses of Dalits but also threatened them of dire consequences protesting against the wedding of a girl from their community with a boy hailing belonging to Scheduled Caste.
“We are poor villagers and Government has imposed a condition of opening bank accounts to get compensation. Even to open an account in the bank, there is necessity of a minimum amount which most of us do not have. We are illiterate and do not know how to approach a bank, how to fill the forms and how to complete the formalities of opening a new account”, said a villager, forced to flee from the village after violence.
Most of the people belong to the Scheduld Caste community work as labourers in the fields or are in petty jobs.
The Deputy Commissioner office, Kaithal, has clearly stated that all the affected families will have to open bank accounts in their names so that their compensation amount can be transferred directly to their accounts.
local administration of Kaithal has announced compensation of Rs1.20 lakh per person to the injured and Rs5,000 per person as preliminary relief to the affected people. During its preliminary survey local administration found three people injured and 13 people affected in the violence.
Pl Punia, chairman of the SC/ST commission, told The Pioneer that commission will ask local administration to assess the rehabilitation work at village Pabnawa.
“It is the duty of local administration to rehabilitate the victims at the earliest. To get compensation, I think there is no necessity of bank accounts. If administration is imposing such conditions, it is their responsibility to assist the people in opening their bank accounts”, added Punia.
Punia had also visited at Pabnawa village to review the situation on April 16.
He slammed local administration and also directed them to speed up the rehabilitation work there Deputy Commissioner of Kaithal, Chander Shekhar has constituted a team of officers to survey all the houses damaged during the incident on April 13.
“We have already ordered to distribute ration, including pulses, wheat and sugar to the families free of cost besides giving them 5 litre kerosene to one family and fodder for their animals in the village”, added Shekhar.
Administration also constituted Peace committee of people of both communities ‘Rod’ and SCs to maintain peace and unity in the village.
On the other hand, Superintendent of Police, Kuldeep Singh Yadav said that police have arrested 15 persons involved in the incident while 35 persons yet to be arrested.
The police have deputed 175 personnel during day time and 150 at night time to maintain peach and harmony in the area besides flag march two times a day at Village Pabnawa.