All is well in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar, pointed out the State Government and the Centre in their affidavits submitted in the Supreme Court, which on Thursday transferred to itself all petitions on the issue pending before the Allahabad High Court.
The hearing on the issue did witness a flutter at one point when an application moved by a lawyer sought to dispel the normal picture depicted both by the Centre and State Government. The lawyer stated that the State was discriminating between relief camps set up for one community against those of the other community. He suggested that about 1500 Jats were deprived of medical facility, food and water as compared to their counterparts.
Attorney General GE Vahanvati, who appeared for the Centre, dubbed the allegations as “irresponsible” reading out one portion from the application describing the recent visit of PM Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who, according to the applicant, visited victims of only one community while choosing to ignore the other community and even refusing to visit their place of worship.
The State Government represented by senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan supported the Centre and said that in the time of such a crisis, politics should be kept out and focus should be to provide immediate succor to the stranded persons and injured persons. The State said that it had disbursed compensation to families of 50 deceased persons and 27 persons with grievous injuries. The bench, headed by CJI P Sathasivam, posted the matter for next Thursday calling for an updated status from the State Government on aspects of compensation, relief and rehabilitation.