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| BJP again betrays refugees in Jammu | | Land rights to refugees from Pak in Maharashtra | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, May 2: The BJP-led Government of Maharashtra with the approval of the Government of India the other day gave freehold of land rights to refugees from Pakistan living in Maharashtra since 1947. The decision will provide the refugees the right to sell their houses or opt for redevelopment without any interference from the state government, which is the owner of these properties.
The Maharashtra Government has decided to bring all such properties under Class 1 (A) category of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966.
In Maharashtra, there are around 31 such colonies where refugees from West Pakistan have been residing since partition in 1947. Compensation land pool was made and plots were allotted to these refugees – most of whom migrated from Sindh and Punjab provinces of the then West Pakistan – according to the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act of 1954.
It needs to be underlined that the refugees from Pakistan living in Maharashtra exercise all the rights, including the right to vote, right to education, right to job and right to bank loan.
Sadly, however, the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre has again betrayed nearly 2 lakh refugees from Pakistan residing in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts since 1947 by not treating them at par with similar refugees living in Maharashtra. But to talk about land rights to these refugees, they do not have even the right to job, right to higher and technical education, right to vote in the Assembly and Local-Bodies’ elections and right to bank loan. They have been struggling since 7 decades to obtain citizenship rights in the state but with no result as all political parties in power at the centre failed to meet their demands under one pretext or the other but basically on the ground that the state enjoyed special status under Article 370. Even the justice system failed to come to their rescue saying it couldn’t do anything in view of the special status of J&K within the Union. The fact of the matter is that the Indian political class and the justice system consistently violated the Preambles of the Indian Constitution and of the J&K Constitution, which grant equal rights to all, without any exception.
Now that the BJP Government in Maharashtra with the consent of the BJP-led Government at the Centre has granted full land rights to refugees from Pakistan, it is time for the Union Government to also appreciate the problems and concerns of the refugees from Pakistan and overrule senseless opposition to their demand seeking all citizenship rights which the people of the state exercise under the J&K Constitution.
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