| Six months on, proposal sent by Revenue Department gathering dust in GAD | | State Govt indifferent to refugees' plight | | Akshay Azad
Jammu, July 1: The coalition Government headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, is seemingly non serious towards issues of refugees of 1947, 65 and 71, as the proposal finalized by Revenue Relief and Rehabilitation department has been gathering dust in General Administrative department (GAD) for the last more than six months.
Sources informed Early Times that the Revenue Relief and Rehabilitation department had finalized a proposal to the tune of more than Rs. 8000 Crores for settlement of refugees of 1947, 65 and 1971 and submitted to GAD in the month of November 2013.
"After replying to the queries raised by GAD over the draft proposal, we had submitted the same to former before Darbar move, which was to be presented before state Cabinet", a higher official of Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation department said, adding that after getting green signal of state Cabinet, same would have to be forwarded to Union Government, but till last six months, same has been biting dust, somewhere in GAD.
Sources said that the draft proposal submitted by Revenue department included the demands of refugees like reservation in professional colleges, compensation against land deficiency as per market value, conferring of ownership rights/tenancy rights on land allotted to Chhamb refugees, disposal of pending applications for compensation etc. have been incorporated in the package.
They further said that the Revenue department had proposed payment of Rs 25 lakh per family as one time settlement in favour of 5764 families of West Pakistan Refugees. Moreover, it had also proposed Rs 20 lakh for each family of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and Chhamb refugees of 1965 and 1971, who have been settled in urban areas.
"As far as PoK and Chhamb refugees settled in rural areas are concerned, the Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Department had proposed Rs 15 lakh compensation as one time settlement.
The coordination committee of National Conference- Congress, had also given its recommendations to state Government but delay in submission of proposal, has been leaving the Congress leaders infuriated.
A senior Congress leader said that they had worked hard and given important recommendations for the settlement of 1947, 65 and 1971 refugees.
"A proposal in this regard was prepared by the state Government but unfortunately, it has so far not been cleared by the Cabinet", he said while adding, "By now, the proposal should have been submitted to the Union Government for consideration but unfortunately, due to casual approach of the Government, it did not happen".
He added, "If the union Government makes any announcement, it would be injustice with the refuges as we apprehend that some key aspects, projected by Congress Committee, may be ignored".
"We had repeatedly been requesting the state Government to clear the proposal and submit it to the union Government for consideration", the Congress leaders said and added, "We repeatedly requested to the Government before the Parliamentary elections and even after the elections".
Commissioner Secretary of GAD, MA Bukhari claimed that he was busy and refused to respond. |
|
