State identifies 723 kanals for rehabilitation of Pandits

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 23

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has identified 723 kanals (nearly 100 acres) for the rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits who migrated from the Valley in the early 1990s following the eruption of militancy.

This comes after the Central government’s recent approval for the construction of 6,000 transit accommodations in the Kashmir valley for Kashmir migrants (Pandits).

“The Government of India has conveyed the approval for construction of 6,000 transit accommodations in the Kashmir valley for allotment to Kashmiri migrants to whom state government jobs have been provided or will be provided. In this regard, the Deputy Commissioners of the Kashmir valley have identified 723.03 kanals with the tentative cost of land being Rs 374.65 crore,” Minister for Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Basharat Ahmed Bukhari said in a written reply to a question of BJP MLA Rajesh Gupta in the Legislative Assembly today.

The Union Home Ministry has also conveyed its approval for the creation of 3,000 additional posts for migrant Pandit youth with funding from the Government of India, the Minister said, adding that “the proposal is under active consideration for submission to the Cabinet”.

According to the official statistics, around 62,000 Kashmiri migrant families were registered with the government. Out of these, 41,462 families are residing in different areas of Jammu province and the remaining in the rest of the country.

Post-insurgency in Kashmir, nearly 3.5 lakh Kashmiri Pandits and some Sikh and Muslim families had migrated to Jammu and other parts of the country for safety. The mass migration had begun on January 19, 1990.

The Centre had sanctioned a package of Rs 1,618 crore during 2008-09 for the construction of houses and transit accommodations and creation of government jobs for Kashmiri Pandits.

“The amount spent on account of cash assistance and free ration from April 2014 to November 30 last year was over Rs 455 crore, including cash assistance of Rs 413 crore,” the minister said.

“The transit accommodations, where Kashmiri Pandits are likely to be rehabilitated, will be constructed across 10 districts of the Kashmir valley,” said a PTI report quoting the officials of the Union Home Ministry.

On January 19, the J&K Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution seeking the “respectable” return of Kashmiri migrants to the Valley after their exodus from Kashmir 27 years ago.