Queuing up for medical facilities at a relief camp in Muzaffarnagar
The National Human Rights Commission, which reviewed the conditions in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh after allegations of mismanagement, today praised the state's Akhilesh Yadav government for doing a "good job" but tried to retract it almost immediately.
"The Commission appreciates that the rehabilitation of 51,000 displaced persons was a daunting task and the state government has by and large done a good job," the rights panel said in a statement issued at its press conference in Lucknow.
The members also said they had found "glaring lacuna in health and sanitary conditions in the camps."
When the media asked the Commission to explain their praise for the government, chief KG Balakrishnan backtracked.
Another member, Satyabrat Pal clarified, "We were only commenting on efforts to control the riots."
Nearly 60 people were killed and thousands driven out of their villages in the Jat-Muslim riots that tore through Muzaffarnagar in September.
The state government has been accused of failing to check the riots in time, and later, not providing enough facilities at the relief camps where affected families took shelter. In three months over 30 children have died in the district, allegedly because of lack of medicines and warm clothing in the camps.
The government has been panned for trying to remove the camps and drive people out of them in an apparent attempt to deflect criticism.
Another panel member, Kanwaljeet Deol, also caused a flutter by saying that reports of camps being pulled down and people driven out forcibly were not true.