BJP’s anti-people policies exposed: PoK refugees

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 15

Refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Sunday alleged that the extension of the Centre’s rehabilitation package till 2020 had exposed the BJP’s anti-people policies.

Addressing a meeting of refugees, Rajiv Chuni, chairman, SoS International, a refugee organisation, said when the government had announced the relief amount of Rs 5.5 lakh per family in 2014, refugees had outrightly rejected it. He said only on the assurance of the then state government that the amount was the first instalment of the Rs 25 lakh package per family, had the refugees accepted the relief amount.

“The unilateral extension of the relief distribution scheme by the Central government till 2020 is unjustified. Thousands of people who got uprooted from areas of J&K occupied by Pakistan in 1947 are being discriminated against and denied justice,” said Chuni after he was re-elected as the chairman of the SOS International for the 9th time.

He said 26,319 PoK displaced families were registered in J&K. A total of 31,619 displaced families were registered during their mass exodus from their ancestral places in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Of them, 5,300 families were registered outside J&K and have unfortunately been excluded from the relief package, Chuni said.

He said the successive governments had ditched the refugees, who were the first victims of the Kashmir conflict which started in 1947 and led to the mass migration of people.