Twenty years after the communal riots in Bhagalpur which claimed about 1,000 innocent lives, the Centre has decided to compensate the victims. The government has released Rs 29.81 crore as compensation for them. “We have received the fund allotment letter from the Centre and this has been communicated to the Bhagalpur district administration which will now hand over the compensation amount to family members of the 844 people killed in the riots,” said Bihar Home Commissioner Afzal Amanullah. The state government had initially identified 861 families to be compensated but the Centre cleared the names of 844 victims only. As per the Centre’s move, each of the victims will get Rs. 3.5 lakh.
Earlier the Bihar government had announced to give a life-long pension of Rs 2,500 per month to the widow of those killed, besides re-opening the cases in which some of the accused were let off.