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| Delink rehabilitation from return | | | Abid Shah
New Delhi, August 26: Sops offered to Kashmiri Pandit migrants in the State Budget presented earlier this month in J&K Assembly have not impressed over a lakh-strong displaced Pandit community settled here. The Budget promises 15,000 jobs in Government and private sectors to those KPs who wish to return to the Valley.
Yet, the leader of a Pandit migrants’ organisation, Dr L.N. Dhar, says the issue before the displaced Pandits is not job, work and vocation alone but also safety, security, peace and tranquility. All these things still remain a far cry not only in the Valley but also in the rest of the State that face the same threat with often a lesser degree.
“There are not going to be many takers of the jobs that the State Finance Minister, Mr Abdur Rahim Rather, flaunted in his Budget Speech of August 10. In the past too, there have been such offers by State and Union Governments but none of us could gather courage to turn homewards.
``The Prime Minister had offered Rs 1,600 crores as a rehabilitation package to help those who were willing to return but this could not take back any of us who have been braving now two-decade-long exile from our homes,” remarked Dr Dhar while talking to Early Times. He heads All-India Kashmiri Samaj, Delhi.
Earlier in his Budget speech, Mr Rather had said that Kashmir’s composite culture and lifestyle would remain crippled till Pandits returned. Mr Rather had hoped that the incentive of jobs could well trigger the process. Later, he had clarified that a significant chunk of 15,000 jobs proposed by him would mostly come from Centre-sponsored schemes. He said that the Government had also allocated Rs 130 crores for building 5,242 dwelling units at Jagti near Nagrota in Jammu under Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan (PMRP). Another Rs 3 crores would be spent on laying Nagrota-Jagti Link-Road, the Minister said.
Charging the Government with doublespeak, Dr Dhar said that building dwellings in a protected zone did not guarantee safety for those who would have to go out for work and vocation or in search of them.
“If the Minister is really sincere in making such offers, he should de-link rehabilitation from the condition of refugees’ return to the Valley. In the absence of protection, safety and security he as well as the higher-ups of the Central Government do know very well that none are going to return. Yet they make such offers since Pandit migrants have moved the Supreme Court through a public interest litigation seeking relief, rehabilitation, safety and security. Thus, sops are routinely announced by Government to tailor a defence that could well be interpreted before the court to prove that a slew of steps have been taken to address the grievances of Pandits,” said Dr Dhar.
On being pointed out that the Minister had stated on August 10 that 825 jobs have already been given by the State Government to the widows, orphans and dependents of those who perished as a result of militancy in the State besides disbursement of Rs 50 crores among the kith and kin of 1,233 such unfortunate victims, Dr Dhar said that he never doubted that Muslims of the Valley too have been victims of insurgents’ fire but the difference between them and Hindus of the Valley has simply been that the later were forced out of their abodes besides other atrocities and because of the physical absence the Hindu victims were not able to avail any assistance that the Government have been offering. Thus, all rehabilitation steps should be undertaken in a manner where actual victims whether Hindus or Muslims are able to avail them from anywhere they might be.
To bolster this argument Dr Dhar said that a few Muslims who landed up in Jammu in the wake of extreme misfortune and hardship brought by militants to them were given a minimal monitory assistance that Kashmiri Pandits’ organisations were able to spare.
He said that a Muslim couple unable to cope with the militants’ threats fled from the Valley and landed up in Delhi recently with documents of their employment under State Government’s service. The Pandits’ Samiti took up the couple’s case before the Resident Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir in Delhi and got an assurance from the officials that the unfortunate couple would be given their salary as has been the case before with some of the Pandit Government employees who had to flee from the Valley in the wake of similar circumstances.
Dr Dhar said that Government’s deceptive vagueness might well suit its politics but this has been inflicting worst kind of miseries for those from the State who suffered the most through the two-decade long strife that befell on the Valley.
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