Initiating a major step towards fulfilling its electoral promise, the Narendra Modi Government on Friday asked the Jammu & Kashmir Government to identify “suitable land” for the rehabilitation of some three lakh Kashmiri Pandits who migrated from Kashmir Valley in the early 1990’s due to militancy.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh wrote to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for allocation of land for creating dwelling units for these families under the Government’s plan for implementation of the rehabilitation scheme for migrants. Singh is learnt to have stressed the need for en bloc allocation of land in safe locations in order to create colonies.
Singh suggested that the land could be near the native place from where they migrated but stressed that this should be done after ensuring that there was adequate security in and around the area.
The Home Minister, in his letter, said the Union Government is “committed to facilitate the return of the Kashmiri migrants to the Valley and their proper rehabilitation.” Singh said in order to achieve these goals, the Centre has already earmarked a sum of Rs 500-crore which was announced during the presentation of the new Government’s first Budget.
At present, there are about 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families who left Kashmir Valley for either Jammu, Delhi or for other parts of the country after the onset of militancy in the border State. The Home Minister’s letter came ahead of the State Assembly elections likely to be held in November-December this year.
Reacting to the development, one of the most prominent voices of the Kashmiri Pandit community, Dr Agnishekhar said: “We welcome the initiatives, but we would like to ask the Union Government whether they are going to settle the Kashmiri Pandits by creating a centrally-administered Union Territory which we would call our homeland or are they going to rehabilitate Kashmiri migrants at different places in the Valley.
“Till the time it is not clear we are going to reserve our response,” convenor of Panun Kashmir, Dr Agnishekhar told The Pioneer. He recalled that the Congress-led UPA Government had also drafted a Rehabilitation package, but it was rejected by the community members as it failed to address the real issues confronting the migrant community.
Dr Agnishekhar urged the Union Government to clearly spell out their policy vis-a-vis return of Kashmiri migrants. He said that no other solution except the homeland for the return of Kashmiri Hindus is acceptable to the community. “We will not return to a Talibanized society and the only solution to our problems is creation of a separate homeland within the Valley with UT status.”
National Spokesperson of All Parties Migrant Coordination committee (APMC) King Bharti said the Centre should stop interacting with ‘drawing room’ leaders and involve real stakeholders and those working on the ground with the migrant community. “We urge the Union Government to constitute a national-level apex committee to broad-base the dialogue with the real stakeholders if they wish to address the issue of rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants,” Bharti told The Pioneer.
He said rehabilitation packages including employment package announced in the past have failed to yield the desired results. “It is for this reason we want to convey to the Central Government to look at the long-term settlement of Kashmiri migrants and we want to know whether the Union Government has drafted a proposal to settle us at one place or at different places to address security concerns raised by the members of the community,” he said.