Woeful plight of Pandits in camps
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

NAGROTA, Dec 26 — As their ninth year in "exile" ends, the over 1400 families of displaced Kashmiris, camping in one-room tenements here, pose one question to any visitor: "How long more do we have to suffer tribulations, frustration and dejection in the shanties, lacking basic civic amenities?"

This question defies an answer in the light of the uncertain political and security situation in the Kashmir valley. The womenfolk in the two camps here remain busy from morning till evening in cleaning the dingy lanes, rooms and in carrying potable water from the tankers. The males keep on nursing their ailments and sorrows. The educated youth are restless without jobs.

Kashi Nath, a frail old man from the border town of Kupwara, bursts into tears when he recalls how his daughter had been abducted in 1990 and later severed into pieces on a saw mill. He would have, by now, forgotten the deep wound had his two sons, both of them graduates, been able to get some job.

Shambu Nath, who was known in Srinagar as an Editor of an Urdu daily, has to eke out a living by bringing out a small newspaper because Rs 300 given to him by the Government as monthly cash relief is too meagre to meet the expenses on medicines.

Many in the camps are still reluctant to pose for pictures. Many are not prepared to talk to a newsman as they continue to be apprehensive of militants who could sneak into the camps and kill them. But others are angry. They candidly blame their Muslim neighbours for having turned blind to "our miseries in Kashmir." They are angry with the State and the Central governments.

"We are ignored by the government because we are not a vote bank," said Dwarka Nath who had two houses in Kupwara but now has to be content with living in a one-room tenement without a kitchen and a toilet. What angers most of the displaced Kashmiris is the struggle they have to put in getting the cash relief, the maximum limit being Rs 1800 per family and minimum Rs 300 per head per month. Since the government has introduced a cheque system for releasing the cash relief to avoid impersonation, these hapless migrants have to pay several visits to the banks to see whether the cheques have been cleared after receipt from the Relief Commissioner's office.

In three other camps at Muthi and Mishriwalla on the outskirts of Jammu, the condition of the campers is unenviable. Each room presents a picture of mental and physical agony. Maharaj Kishen Pandita and several other campers have spent money out of their pockets to build small kitchens and makshift toilets.

In the Muthi Phase I camp there is one toilet for both the sexes. Right from 4 O'clock in the morning, people line up for easing themselves. In several tenements the roofs have leaked and the campers had to spend money to repair the cracks.