Rs 30 crore for Bihar riot victims

The government on Thursday cleared a Rs 30 crore compensation package for victims of the Bhagalpur riots in Bihar, months after it extended the generous relief package drawn up for victims of the 1984 riot in Delhi to the 2002 Gujarat riot victims.

The next of kin of those killed during the riots will be paid an ex-gratia amount of Rs 3.5 lakh in addition to the compensation already paid by the state government, a spokesman said. The state government had certified the death of 844 people in the riots 19 years ago and handed out Rs 1 lakh in compensation to each of their families. The 22 injured will receive Rs 1.25 lakh each, which will be reduced by the amount already paid by the state.

Soon after he came to power, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had appointed a judicial commission to look into the demand for re-investigating the riots. The commission gave its interim report last year, recommending a relief package on the lines of that announced for 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims. Last year, when the Centre extended this package to Gujarat victims, the demand from Patna got louder.

Sporting gesture

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decided to spend more than Rs 600 crore over the next three years to expose sportspersons to intensive, quality training and upgrade training infrastructure to international levels. The Rs 678-crore scheme is aimed at improving India’s competitiveness in international sports and enhancing its medals tally at events like the Commonwealth Games 2010.

Water data bank

Information on the country’s water resources will now be easily available with the Cabinet okaying the creation of a Rs 234.3 crore data bank. The ‘Development of Water Resources Information System’ will support collection of hydrological and water quality data from the Central Water Commission-maintained 880 key observation stations covering all major river basins.