On Tuesday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha launched a dedicated portal for the terror victim families in Jammu Kashmir with the aim of providing institutionalized support to victims of terrorism. The Web portal, developed by the Home Department in collaboration with NIC, will serve as a centralized platform to capture and maintain comprehensive district-wise data on Terrorism-affected families. The details of any encroachments on the property of the victims or their NOKs are also being captured. As rightly pointed out by the LG the process will ensure that no legitimate case is left unaddressed and timely support is extended to eligible families in terms of financial relief, ex-gratia compensation and compassionate employment while ensuring elimination of any bogus or multiple claims.
In a recent interview to a private TV channel, LG Sinha regretted that he came to know about the issue of terror victim families only some 7/8 months back and immediately geared up the administration to do the needful. Already job letters have been handed over to nearly 40 people from the families of such victims. The initiative was much-awaited as the pain of these victims was ignored for too long. While the respective governments did nothing to help these families, society as a whole, also remained indifferent because of so many reasons, particularly the security and safety ones.
It goes without saying that there are thousands of terror victims whose stories remained untold and who never got justice. In this backdrop, LG’s initiative to help these victims seek justice is appreciable. In this regard, the Police and the civil administration should gear up and identify the cases about which FIRs were lodged and also those where no FIRs were lodged. The toll-free number should be widely circulated and District Police Chiefs too should have a special toll-free number so that the victims can have an easy access to reach out to the concerned authorities. These people have waited for too long, they deserve justice and LG’s initiative is a right step in right direction. These family deserve closure so that they can move ahead in life with dignity.
That said, LG should also spare a thought for those people who died during these years for the simple reason that they were at a wrong place at a wrong time. Those who were killed in road side grenade attacks, blasts, those who were caught in cross-fire and lost their lives, their families too need justice. While pursuing the cases of terror victims, the government should task the concerned authorities to identify such victim families and then take proper steps to help them. Indirectly, they too are terror victims and should be treated like the families of direct terror victims. These steps will go a long way in winning the hearts of the people whom the justice has eluded for so long.