People's Democracy

WE met the administration at around 7 p m after our meetings in the various affected areas, and handed them over a memorandum. After a few minutes there was an electricity failure. We were shocked that there were no alternative sources of electricity. The entire top brass of the administration held a meeting in the main Kotwali in total darkness for over 45 minutes! It does not inspire much confidence in their levels of efficiency. Surely a generator could be arranged in the Kotwali for more efficient functioning of the force.

In reply to our memorandum, the commissioner agreed that there were many examples of neighbours helping each other. He went further to say that it was a lapse of the administration and that the matter could have been handled better. This frank admission by the commissioner confirms one of the main findings of the team, namely the failure of the administration in the initial phase. We were surprised that none of the officials present had taken the first highly provocative posters seriously. In our presence, they were asking each other what the posters had said. We had to supply them the details after which they recalled it. Even then they were dismissive about it, saying that the posters were after all put up only in a few selected areas.

The officials also indicated that they were aware of the role played by sections of the PAC. The commissioner and the IG stated to us that they had moved swiftly on a complaint and returned articles taken (looted) by the PAC from a PAC van. When we asked whether any action had been taken, they said that the PAC’s IG was in Kanpur on March 21 to look into the complaints. It is questionable whether a top official of the same force which committed the atrocities can be given such a responsibility. The inquiry could have more credibility if it had been conducted by an impartial institution. In any case, we asked: Has any action been taken where there is prima facie evidence, such as in the case of looting admitted by the commissioner? No, no action has been taken yet, was the answer. The IG said that the force required training to be able to deal with such situations.

We put forward the complaint that till then no surveys were being conducted to assess the damage. In reply to our urging for quick payment of compensation, the commissioner said that the process had been started. We informed him that in all the places we had visited we were told that no official teams had been there. To our query about the efforts being made to ensure proper sanitation conditions in the curfew bound areas which were filled with open pile of garbage, giving rise to fears of an epidemic, he said that the work had already started.

At the end of the discussions we were puzzled by the apparent reasonableness of the officers, their admission of the lapses and state sponsored atrocities on the one hand and the ground realties of continuing insensitivity towards the minority community on the other.