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| Ex-gratia relief given to just 1 applicant, 99 percent claims rejected | | J&K Govt disappointed POK refugees! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 6: Believe it or not but relief and rehabilitation department of Jammu and Kashmir government rejected 99 percent of the ex-gratia claims made by 1947 refugees of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
In most of the cases, claims made by the aggrieved have been rejected on the grounds that monthly income of the applicant was more than Rs. 300 per month at the time of migration. According to the official documents, Relief and Rehabilitation department received 1011 applications. If the claims of the department are to be believed, they verified the applications and found 1010 deficient, thus leading to the rejection of the claims made therein.
The department rejected 1010 applications and made reimbursement in only one case. In a number of other cases, verifying committee rejected some of the application forms also on the grounds that they were received without the supporting documents.
It needs to be mentioned here that union ministry of home affairs sanctioned a relief and rehabilitation package in the year 2000 for the refugees of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
This package included ex-gratia payment of Rs.25, 000 per family, cash compensation in lieu of land deficiency at Rs.5, 000 per kanal, Rs.2 crore to be provided for the allotment of plots to the displaced persons who have already been settled in urban areas and who have not been allotted plots in the past and Rs.25 lakh for improvement of civic amenities in 46 regularized colonies. J&K government was given the sole authority of disbursing the package among the refugees but its concerned department miserably failed to do justice with the package.
Not only the ex-gratia component, state government failed to hand over cash compensation in lieu of land deficiency at Rs.25,000 per kanal subject to a maximum of Rs.1.5 lakh per family. Of the 4988 claims received, 3948 claims were verified by the department. Of these, 1028 claims were rejected, 2841 approved. Cash compensation was given in 2524 cases while 79 cases are being re-verified.
In the case of allotment of plots to the POK refugees who have already been settled in urban areas of the state but not allotted any plot, payment of Rs.2 lakh per family was made instead of plot. For this component, state government received 198 applications. Of these, 48 applications were found Complete but only 18 were placed before the verification committee, of which 6 applications were approved, 2 were rejected and in 10 cases, re-verification was ordered. Remaining 30 applications are being placed before the verification committee.
It needs to be mentioned here that 31,619 families were registered with the Rehabilitation Organisation, out of which 26,319 families opted to settle down within the state itself and 5,300 families settled outside the state (Delhi 1,901 families, Maharashtra 123 families, Rajasthan 495 families and other States 2,781 families). Out of 26,319 families, around 22,719 families opted to settle in rural areas, whereas 3,600 families settled in urban areas.
However, no claims for compensation in lieu of the properties left behind by these displaced persons were invited by the Government of India as POJK was treated as an integral part of India. The Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, 1954 and the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950 are not applicable to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. It needs to be reiterated that Relief and Rehabilitation department was headed by Congress ministers for the six years of the NC-Congress coalition government. |
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