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| Parliamentary panel unhappy with J&K Govt | | Kashmiri migrants' hardships haven't ended | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, May 3
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is accused of adopting dilatory tactics in relation to the growing need to "minimise" difficulties and hardships of the Kashmiri migrants--uprooted members of the Kashmiri Pandit community, to be precise. The accusation is contained in the 126th report of Parliamentary standing comittee on Home Affairs, which has just been laid on the table of Lok Sabha.
The scheme for relief and rehablitation of J&K migrants, the report said, was introduced by the government to minimise the migrants' dificulties and hardships and to provide them a reasonable amount of sustenace and support. During 2005-06, Rs 153.11 crores were allocated, which was reduced to Rs 129.30 crores and the actual amount spent was Rs 108.73 crores.
In 2006-07, a provision of Rs 120 crores was kept at BE (budget estimates) for rehabilitation schemes and relief measures for Kashmiri migrants and this amount, the report points out, has been retained in BE 2007-08 in spite of projection of Rs 130 crores for the same year. Parliamentary standing committee's report has quoted Home Ministry officials as saying that the amount of Rs 120 crores had been retained in BE 2007-08 "due to receipt of fewer claims" for reimbursement from the government of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Union Home Ministry is reported to have informed the 31-member standing committee that the grants are released by the Centre only after the receipt of proposals from the J&K government. And the commitee's report revealed that the Home Ministry officials had let it be known that schemes (for the relief and rehabilitation of the Kashmir migrants) "were not forthcoming from the State of J&K". The report said: "As a result of this, though migrants are livng in sub-human conditions in rehabilitation camps, funds allocated for the purpose are not utilised fully".
It is official: There are 55,950 Kashmiri (Pandit) migrant families. Of these, 34,562 families are in Jammu, 19,338 families in Delhi and 2050 families in other States and Union Territories. Parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs had, in its 119th report, recommended that the Union government should make the J&K government come forward with schemes (for relief and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants) in time and implement them "without delay". Despite this, the panel, the report says, "is disturbed to learn that against the BE 2006-07 provision of Rs 120 crores, the expenditure during 2006-07 is expcted to be only Rs 70 crores".
Hence, all the more reason for the standing committee to what it has termed as "again strongly urge" the Ministry of Home Affairs to "further impres upon the J&K government about the necessity of sending schemes expeditiously and implement them in time so that all the J&K migrants are rehabilitated without further delay".
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