Punjab Congress today demanded a comprehensive rehabilitation and resettlement package for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh violence.
The package should include Rs 25 lakh as compensation and a government job to one member of each affected family, Punjab Congress Legislature Party chief Charanjit Singh Channi said.
He lambasted Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for shedding "crocodile tears" for the victims and "exploiting" them as political tool in elections over the years without doing anything tangible when in power.
Channi said he raised the issue in the Budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha but the government did not give any assurance on the floor of the House.
He said earlier, Badal and other Akali leaders used to blame the Congress government for shoddy investigation due to which the guilty were still to be punished.
"But now, BJP is in power at the Centre in which the Shiromani Akali Dal has powerful representation with Union Food processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
"Kaur had been raising the issue during the UPA regime but has now suddenly become silent when she could seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in expediting the cases to punish the guilty," Channi said.
