Restore water supply to Rohingyas in Jammu, minister orders Jal Shakti

The Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday said that it has issued directions to restore the water supply to the Rohingya immigrants, a day after the administration in Jammu started a crackdown against property owners who have provided accommodation to “undocumented” Rohingyas on their plots and homes and snapped water and electricity connection.

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Jammu and Kashmir Jal Shakti Minister Javed Ahmed Rana on Saturday said that while the issue of Rohingya presents a challenge for the government in the country, he has issued instructions to Jal Shakti to restore the water supply, on “humanitarian grounds.”

He said in a welfare state, it is “our fundamental duty to provide social security” to all those under the government’s purview.

“It is our responsibility to give electricity, water to the Rohingya and we will continue to do so,” he said. He added that it was not good to stop ration, electricity and water. “I have issued directions to restore on humanitarian grounds,” he said, while expressing surprise over the snapping of water supply by the department.

Water and power connections of many such property owners were on Friday disconnected and the latter have been told to vacate their properties within a month in Jammu region.

The action was taken after the administration issued orders to snap the facility to 409 Rohingya families in the Channi Himmat, Sunjuwan and Narwal areas of Jammu.

Recently a tenant verification drive was carried out by the police in Jammu region in the wake of rising terror attacks on security establishments and locals.