In the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overtures to people of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan region under illegal occupation of Pakistan, the Centre is all set to announce a Rs2,000-crore package for displaced people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir living in the country.
The Union Home Ministry is expected to put up the specifics of the package before the Union Cabinet for approval soon, a senior official said.
The J&K Government has already identified 36,348 families for distribution of the package under which each family will get around Rs5.5 lakh.
“We hope that within a month, the package will get approval from the Union Cabinet and the funds could be distributed among the beneficiaries,” the official said.
The refugees from West Pakistan, mostly from PoK, got settled in different areas of Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts. However, they are not permanent residents of the State in terms of Jammu & Kashmir Constitution.
Some of the families were displaced during partition in 1947, and others during the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan.
The displaced people can cast their votes in lok Sabha polls but not in the elections to Jammu & Kashmir Assembly.
Jammu & Kashmir Sharanarthi Action Committee (JKSAC), an organisation representing the displaced people of the PoK has been maintaining that the package should not be seen as final settlement as Rs 9,200 crore was required to settle all of them.
The Modi government had in January 2015 approved certain concessions for the refugees from West Pakistan settled in Jammu & Kashmir after considering the problems being faced by them.
The concessions include special recruitment drives for induction into paramilitary forces, equal employment opportunities in the State, admission for the children of refugees in Kendriya Vidyalayas, among others.
The Prime Minister had for the first time talked about the plight of people of PoK, Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan at an all-party meeting convened to discuss the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir on August 12.
Three days later, while addressing the nation on Independence Day, he again referred to the three regions under the control of Pakistan.
In its latest diplomatic offensive, the Centre has said that PoK is part of Jammu & Kashmir. The Government is reportedly planning to invite the Diaspora from PoK, Gilgit-Baltistan for the next edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas to be held in Bengaluru.
However, the Indian diplomatic missions across key capitals of the world are yet to mount an offensive to highlight the plight of the people in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan where the Pakistani security forces are ruthlessly crushing the voice of the people there are reportedly killing them en masse. This besides, there is lack of response from the NGOs here as they are yet to petition the missions of foreign countries to protest the violence reportedly being committed by the Pak security forces in these regions.