Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday reiterated that the Government would "seriously deliberate" on the concerns of Kashmiri Pandits with all stakeholders. He was responding to the demands of a delegation of Pandits living in Delhi.
“A delegation of the Kashmiri Samiti Delhi has offered to go to the flood-hit Kashmir Valley to help the Kashmiri people there in this hour of calamity. The delegation led by its president, Vijay Raina said that even though they had been uprooted from the Valley nearly 25 years ago, they had lived together in harmony for several centuries and therefore they felt their responsibility towards their brothers and sisters there," said the statement issued by Singh's office. Singh, MoS in the PMO, said that every effort will be made to facilitate the cooperation and services offered by the displaced community in the relief and rehabilitation operations currently going on in Kashmir.
The delegation handed over a detailed memorandum to Singh spelling out a number of demands including rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits at places of their present settlement, grant of ownership rights to the allottees of Jagati township near Jammu, compensation for over-aged Kashmiri Pandit youth, enhancement of monthly relief, bifurcation of migrant cards for displaced families living in Delhi on the pattern followed in Jammu where the minor children have become major, employment package for Kashmiri Pandit youth living outside the State and restoration of relief for registered migrants living in Delhi who were corporate employees and have since retired. Singh assured the delegation that the Government will seriously deliberate on all the suggestions put forward in the memorandum.
"Appreciating the gesture shown by the representatives of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, Singh said, it was a matter of great satisfaction to note that even after having gone through the nightmare of mass exodus from the Valley, the members of Kashmiri Pandit community, now settled far away from Kashmir, still hold the same amount of commitment to their motherland and yearned to reach out to the flood-hit Kashmiri people in the Valley regardless of whichever religion or sect they belonged. This, indeed, is the distinct richness of the Kashmir culture which stands out unscathed even in the most hostile circumstances, he observed," said the statement.