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| "Citizenship rights to Pak refugees may change J&K's demography", Harsh Dev | | |
Nirbhay Jamual
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 24: "Manmohan Singh,a refugee from Pakistan has become India's Prime Minister. L.K. Advani a Pak refugee has risen to the rank of Deputy Prime Minister. But those West Pakistan refugees who opted for staying in Jammu, 60 years ago, can neither own any immovable property nor are elligible for jobs in the state Government," said working chairman Panthers Party, Harsh Dev Singh, while lamenting over the misfortune of the refugees from West Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
He said despite repeated and prolonged demand for ending the raw deal that was being provided to these refugees Harsh Dev said that it was height of injustice when the state Government announced in the Assembly the other day that it had no plan to rehabilitate the POK refugees on the pattern of Kashmiri migrants.
Harsh posed a question:"the state Government has described the West Pakistan refugees,settled in Jammu,as citizens of India why then it has reservation in treating them citizens of Jammu and kashmir state ?"He said agreed that the state constitution needed to be amended for allowing the Pak refugees to get citizenship rights but why the successive ruling parties have not done so when during the last four decades scores of amendments to the state constitution had been adopted.
The Panthers Party leader expressed deep surprise over the haste that the National Conference leadership was showing in getting its policy on rehabilitation of militants implemented.On one hand,he added,the NC leadership wanted to rehabilitate those militants,who had gone to Pakistan for arms training and were keen to return to kashmir without weapons on the other hand those who had been staying in Jammu for the last 60 years were not to be rehabilitated.
Ridiculing the National Conference leadership for adopting dual policies Harsh referred to the yet unimplemented resettlement policy.He said the National,when in power in 1996,adopted a Resettlement Bill which provided for full rehabilitation and citizenship rights for those who had migrated to Pakistan from 1947 onwards in case they wished to return to Jammu and Kashmir.But those refugees who had migrated from Pakistan in 1947 and later could not be granted citizenship rights because that may lead to change in the state's demography.Can grant of citizenship rights to less than 10,000 refugees change the state's demographic character ? "Not at all,"says Harsh. |
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