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| KPs demand separate ministry | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, May 6- Kashmiri Pandits have asked the government to create a separate ministry for displaced Kashmiri Pandits to address their immediate problems at the ministry level and asserted that “ no power on the earth can forfeit the rights of Kashmiri Pandits”.
The demand was put forth by Pt Moti Kaul the newly elected president of All India Kashmiri Samaj (AIKS), the apex global body of 62 Kashmiri Pandit organizations in India and abroad, at his maiden press conference here today.
He said that since all the establishments and institutions have failed to deliver for the marginalized community, KPs with five thousand years of history shall now shape their destiny on their own terms. He said that Kashmiri Pandits have been denied the legitimate rights and warned of an agitation if the demands of Kashmiri Pandits were not met immediately.
Moti Kaul said that Kashmiri Pandits have been ignored by the successive state and central governments for the past twenty years of their forced exile and it was the need of the hour to set up a separate ministry for them to deal with their worsening economic and social problems.
Elaborating his new strategy for the Kashmiri Pandit community Moti Kaul said that his organization would pursue the creation of Developmental Board, employment to unemployed Pandit youth and the concept of constituencies in exile adding AIKS would se to it that at least one of the above demands is met within six months for which the organization would use every possible measure to achieve its set targets.
Moti Kaul also cited a few priority areas of the organization for which a sustained pressure would be exerted at the local, national and international levels which include the creation of constituencies in exile, passing of Shrines and Temples Bill for Kashmir Valley, Developmental Board for Pandits and setting up of a separate ministry for Pandits in the state.
He said, “AIKS believes that only a proper political space and restoration of constitutional rights can safeguard this ethnic minority (Kashmiri Pandits). We therefore demand that the constituencies in Exile should be created on priority for the displaced community.
On Unemployment of Kashmiri Pandit youth, Moti Kaul said that unemployment was the most burning problem of the Kashmiri Pandit community adding during their exile 30,000 KP employees got retired and now there were such a small number of KPs in government jobs who can be counted on finger tips.
Regretting the lackluster approach of the government Kaul said that despite the constitution of three committees viz Koul Committee, Sushma Chowdhury committee and Parliamentary Standing Committee to assess the ground realities of displaced Kashmiri Pandits nothing has come out of the reports.
He said that the Sushma Chowdhry Committee of 2004 recommended 10,000 jobs for KPs followed by 1000 jobs every year which were further approved by the Parliamentary Standing Committee but the government slept over the issue and questioned the justification of such committees if the government does not want to implement their recommendations.
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