Help sought from PM's Relief Fund for acid attack victims

Senior officials told PTI that 20-year-old Archana, who is a native of village Dulehra in UP's Bulandshahr district and Sonali Mukherjee, 27, who hails from Bokaro in Jharkhand were both undergoing treatment at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital after acid attacks disfigured their faces.

"The Ministry has been considering for a while the need to set up a mechanism under which it can provide assistance to acid attack victims", said a senior official.

"Though at present such a mechanism is not in place, the minister was moved by the trauma and financial burden that these girls are having and has asked her office to seek help from the Prime Minister's relief fund for both of them," the official added.

Both the victims had a similar tale of pain and woes to tell when they spoke.

Archana Kumari's face was completely scorched when she was attacked by one of her neighbours who had on earlier occasions had misbehaved with her. Terrified and shaken, she and her family left their village without even filing an FIR and moved to Faridabad.

"The incident happened in November 2008 but I have to get operated even now. A surgery on one portion of the my face had be repeated 8 times. My face does not look my own and the Rs 15 to 20 lakh that my family has spent on operations and surgeries has made us sell property and jewellery," she said. (More)