New Delhi  - The Indian government has announced a 3.3-billion-rupee (77 million dollars) relief package for the survivors and families of those killed in anti-Muslim riots in the western Gujarat state in 2002, news reports said Friday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the council of ministers on Thursday and the package would cover payments of compensation to the dependents of those killed, the injured as well as losses because of properties damaged in the violence.

"The cabinet has approved a proposal to give additional compensation to victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots," India's Federal Finance Minister P Chidambaram was quoted by the Indian Express newspaper as saying.

He said that the compensation was in addition to what the state government has already given to the riot victims earlier.

The package will benefit families of 1,169 people killed in the riots, the report said.

Under the compensation package, the families of those who died in the riots will get 350,000 rupees while each of the 2,540 wounded will receive 150,000 rupees.

The Gujarat riots broke out after 59 Hindu activists travelling in a train were burnt alive, allegedly by a Muslim mob. In the retaliatory violence that raged for weeks, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

The state's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government was criticized by human rights groups for making little effort to control the Hindu-Muslim riots.

Local newspapers commented that the relief package was politically motivated, saying it was an attempt by the Congress party led ruling coalition to woo Muslims with India going for general elections next year.

In the state assembly polls held last year, the BJP won with a huge majority to remain in power for the fourth consecutive term.

The Gujarat government, meanwhile, described the move by the federal government as "cheating" and full of "duplicity."

State spokesman and Health Minister Jai Narain Vyas called for a similar package for the anti-Sikh riot victims in 1984.

Scores of Sikhs were killed in the carnage, allegedly led by Congress activists, following the assassination of Congress leader and then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. (dpa)