Monthly relief amount for Delhi’s Kashmiri migrant families raised

New Delhi, October 18

In a major relief to Kashmiri migrant families in the national capital, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday approved the enhancement of adhoc monthly relief (AMR) from Rs 10,000 to Rs 27,000 per month being paid to them.

In 1995, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) had fixed the AMR amount at Rs 5,000 per month which was later raised to Rs 10,000 in 2007.

An official at the L-G office said the enhancement in eligibility is a move to enhance pension coverage by 70 per cent. The L-G has also approved bifurcation and addition of names in the Kashmiri Migrant Cards issued by the GNCTD to facilitate grown up and married children of the migrants.

“The migrant families will also be allowed to declare their families and also allow splitting families due to an increase in size. A non-migrant girl marrying into the migrant family will also be considered as the member of the family,” the official said.

The AMR is provided to the J&K migrants under the “Security Related Expenditure (Relief & Rehabilitation)” introduced by the Central Government in 1989-90, for supporting the relief and rehabilitation of those who were uprooted from the Kashmir valley during the militancy. In Delhi, AMR is provided to the migrant families registered by GNCTD during 1990-93, the official said.

There shall be mandatory Aadhaar seeding of data relating to the family members eligible for AMR. Also, the payment of relief to the migrants will be only through Aadhaar Payment Bridge System/PFMS.

At present, approximately 2,000 families in Delhi are being paid AMR at the rate of Rs 3,250 per person per month, subject to a maximum of four people per family. Out of this amount, Rs 1,000 is the share of the GNCTD and Rs 2,250 is the share of the Government of India, which is reimbursed by the MHA. The monthly expenditure incurred on AMR is about Rs 2.50 crore. The number of beneficiaries is, however, expected to increase by nearly 70% after factoring in increase in the number of “units” because of rise in the number of family members.

Was fixed at Rs 5K in 1995

In 1995, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi had fixed the amount at Rs 5,000 per month, which was later increased to Rs 10,000 in 2007.