NEW DELHI: Compensation applications of many victims of the northeast Delhi riots were rejected on “flimsy grounds”, Delhi Waqf Board officials claimed on Friday. According to the officials, the grounds for rejection included reasons such as not picking up their phone and neighbours testifying against them.
The panel is going through 748 rejected applications for compensation on the direction of Delhi Assembly’s Minority Welfare Committee. The committee in its meeting on September 2, had directed the Waqf Board chief executive officer for gathering information about the applications which were rejected but no proper reasons were given for it, they said.
A team of Waqf Board officials went through 160 rejected applications. A report on these applications was submitted to the Committee on Wednesday, a senior Waqf Board official said. The report on the remaining rejected applications will be submitted to the committee on October 7.
“In one case, the application was rejected on the ground that the applicant did not pick up the phone during verification process. In another case, the compensation application was rejected because the victim got the shutter of his shop repaired to prevent theft of some costly equipment that was not destroyed when his clinic was vandalised during the riots,” said the official. In some cases, the applications of victims were rejected because the neighbours testified against claims of losses made by the applicants.