With an eye on the Punjab elections slated to be held in 2017, the AAP government has readied a plan to disburse a compensation of Rs130 crore out of its own kitty to the families of the 1984 anti-sikh riot victims.

According to sources, the enhanced compensation amount of Rs 5 lakh every affected family will be distributed to an estimated 2,600 families affected in the riots within the first week of November, without waiting for the Centre to release financial assistance to the state. So far, only 143 riot-affected families have received the compensation amount.

In October, 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led union government had decided to dole out an enhanced compensation to each of the 3,325 victims of the 1984 riots that followed then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination, over and above the funds received by the families so far received from the government.

Last December, union home minister Rajnath Singh had distributed enhanced compensation cheques of Rs 5 lakh each to 17 families of riot victims in west Delhi's Tilak Vihar. Another 16 cheques were released before the February 15 assembly elections. Other cheques were distributed by the deputy commissioners.

Punjab being a crucial state for AAP, the party had already started a thorough groundwork to expand its base in the upcoming state assembly elections. In the 13 seats it contested in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party won four.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently visited the Golden Temple Amritsar to offer prayers in the wake of the violence that erupted with the desecration of the Sikh holy book.