Taking a step further to fulfil its promise of rehabilitating Kashmiri migrants, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved 3,000 additional jobs in the Jammu & Kashmir Government and 6,000 transit accommodations for them. The measures entail a cost of Rs 2,000 crore which the Centre will bear.
This apart, the Cabinet also cleared the enhancement of monetary assistance (from Rs 400 to Rs 2,500) for people displaced from the hilly areas of Jammu region, bringing them on par with Kashmiri Pandits.
Terrorist violence and militancy, particularly in its early phases, in the State had led to large-scale forced migration of members of the Kashmiri Pandit community along with some Sikh and Muslim families from the Kashmir Valley. At present, there are about 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families, of which 39,000 stay in Jammu and 19,000 in Delhi with the remaining in other parts of the country.
Giving details, Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh said the Kashmiri migrants, to whom State Government jobs have been or will be provided, will also be given transit accommodations in the Valley.
The provision of jobs will cost the exchequer Rs 1,080 crore whereas Rs 920 crore will be spent on provision of accommodation, Rs 200 crore on purchasing of land and Rs 720 crore on construction.
Earlier in 2008, a package of Rs 1,618.40 crore was announced to facilitate the return of the migrants to the Kashmir Valley. Under this package, 3,000 State Government jobs were to be provided to the Kashmiri migrants with Central funding. In all, 1,963 jobs have already been provided and the process for the rest is underway.
Nearly 470 transit accommodations have been constructed in the Kashmir Valley which would be allotted to the newly-appointed migrant employees on sharing basis.
The Cabinet’s other decision pertained to raising monetary assistance by more than 400 per cent to migrants from hilly areas of Jammu region to make it on par with Kashmiri migrants.
Accordingly, 1,054 families would be receiving assistance of Rs 2,500 per person from the existing Rs 400, costing the exchequer Rs 13.45 crore per annum.
However, there will be a ceiling of Rs 10,000 per family, similar to what is applicable to Kashmiri Pandit migrants.
As many as 1,054 families migrated from the higher reaches of Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar to Jammu city because of militancy in the 1990s.
“There were complaints that people who had to migrate from hilly areas of Jammu in late 1990s due to militancy were not being paid monthly honorarium as par with the Kashmiri migrants,” said Singh, who is an MP from Jammu.
Terming it as a landmark decision, Singh, who also holds the portfolio of Personnel, said the financial assistance would be in addition to Rs 300 received by these families for purchasing fodder for their cattle and getting dry ration of nine kgs wheat, two kgs rice and 10 litres of kerosene oil.
A fortnight ago, the Prime Minister had announced Rs 80,080-crore package to J&K for various projects.