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| Bhim for white paper on WP refugees | | |
Jammu | May 14
Chairman JKNPP Prof. Bhim Singh in a statement to the media has urged upon the state government to issue a ‘white paper’, on West Pakistan refugees.
As per a press release, he said, it is a human tragedy and needs attention of people who understand the languages of compassion and agony. He said facts needs to be brought to the focus that these refugees are holding land in the state, which was allotted to them lawfully by Sheikh Abdulla’s administration and as such cannot be judged as trespassers.
He felt deeply hurt to read comments of some leading local newspapers of Srinagar and unsavory remarks by some coalition partners vis-à-vis All Party Meet called by the Chief Minister on May 12, in Srinagar.
He said the refugee problems of Jammu region should have been discussed separately because their nature and dimensions were totally different from the scope of the delimitation of Assembly constituencies. Both issues needed serious attention of the public and the media. Secondly, the government should have taken care to provide the last information about the Pakistani refugees and the Pok migrants and their respective problems.
Media also had some responsibility to collect correct facts before bringing out their wrath in totally disproportion to the existing facts, intentionally or unintentionally causing prejudice to the noble and human cause of the innocent people called refugees or migrants, he said.
He added that during the partition of India, Sialkot sector went to newly created Pakistan and bulk of the Hindu population crossed over to J&K in Jammu sector of J&K in 1947. They were, according to the record 24435 in number. Those who could afford, they left for Punjab and other places, about 7000 families stayed in Kathua and Jammu border areas, only on the intervention of the administration of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah who allotted them 4 to 5 marlas of agricultural land and requested to stay and keep watch on the borders. They were not provided PRC because they were not the state subjects. Many left J&K, only small number, mostly SC who could not afford to settle outside remained in J&K.
Singh said when in 1947 Pak-aided invaders attacked J&K and annexed a major chunk of Jammu province measuring 46000 sq. miles, lakhs of non-Muslim population was forced to migrate for their survival. This happened in November 1947 after the state’s accession with the Union of India that 35,000 families as they were registered then managed to escape the brutal aggression.
“They are now around four lakh in number scattered in and around Jammu. All of them are permanent residents of the state and there is no doubt about that. They have not been provided any compensation till date. There is no wrong in their demand knowing well that they shall never be able to go back. Both the union and state governments have responsibility to redress their most genuine grievances.”
With regard to delimitation commission, he said the state constitution provides that after every census there has to delimitation of the Assembly constituencies for the readjustment of their boundaries and rotation of the reserved seats. All the coalition partners including PDP have agreed in their CMP signed by them to constitute delimitation commission. It is for the commission to distribute the seats and not for the state legislature of the political parties.
This should have been done by the Mufti government during their tenure. PDP’s hostile attitude against holding All Party Meet by the Chief Minister revealed the anti-Azad bias by the PDP only because he is from Jammu and not digested by the PDP.
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