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| Complexities behind rehabilitation plan of Pandits in Valley | | | ET Report
Jammu, July 18: From "homeland" the demand has gradually boiled to separate colonies or clusters for the displaced people within the Valley once they return to Kashmir after having spent 22 years in wilderness in the plains.
When Panun Kashmir, a premier organization of displaced people, was born about 18 years ago its leadership focused on its main demand for carving out a homeland within the Valley so that Hindus besides all other nationalist forces could lead a safe and secured life.
Even after the premier organisation suffered trifurcation the units refused to budge from its main demand for a homeland for the displaced people within the Valley. A stage reached when this demand received support from other Pandit organisations.
Gradually the ferocity with which the Pandits were seen raising their pitch over the homeland demand witnessed dilution and that too after the Government started constructing tenements at a number of places in the Kashmir valley, including Sheikhpora, Mattan, Khirbhawani, Vessu etc. The idea behind these clusters was to rehabilitate those displaced families that agreed to return to the Valley and those who had been absorbed in various Government departments, within Kashmir, under the Prime Minister's employment package.
With the establishment of these clusters or tenements a section of displaced people started demanding setting up more colonies for them so that more people, who had been hounded out of the Valley in 1990, could be rehabilitated.
In between, the Central Government announced a package for those displaced families that were ready to return to Kashmir. Under this package each family was entitled to receive Rs. 7.50 lakhs for renovating their ancestral houses that had suffered some damage. The Pandits informed the Government that the sum was too meagre to enable those who had either sold their houses or whose houses had been torched or destroyed by militants.
The State Government has recommended to the Centre that each displaced family, that agrees to return to Kashmir, be paid Rs. 20 lakhs for setting up houses. But senior Pandit leaders are of the opinion that even this amount was too small to enable those migrant families, that have neither any land nor houses, to construct dwellings for them. This is so because of the soaring land prices and cost of construction material.
While the issue was being sorted out between the Government and the Pandit bodies separatists have criticized those planning to settle or rehabilitate Pandits in separate colonies. Senior Hurriyat (G) leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has been in the forefront of those opposing the plan of rehabilitating Pandits in separate colonies.
Geelani and others want the displaced people to start living in their ancestral villages and vicinities in Kashmir on the plea that the Pandits are a part of Kashmir's cultural ethos and social phenomenon. Living in separate colonies would amount to segregation of Hindus from Muslims, which according to them, was not in consonance with the traditional spirit of Kashmiriyat.
In this context a number of questions continue to bother displaced people. Is it possible for these displaced people to first buy land and then construct houses with whatever financial help from the Government? Certainly not because of the high land prices even in villages in Kashmir. Is it possible for these displaced people to form cooperative societies so that they could live in flats? Yes, it is possible because such flats can be constructed between Rs. 20 and Rs. 25 lakhs. But this scheme can be possible if between 30 and 50 families agree on living in a particular place. Possibilities for a consensus in this context are remote.
Even if displaced people decide to return what could be their percentage? Field reports indicate that the number is going to be small. The first generation of the displaced people is dead. The second generation has its compulsions after their children are well settled in different parts of India and abroad. Hence not more than 10 to 20 per cent of the 3.50 lakh people, who had migrated from Kashmir in 1990 following rise in militancy related violence and activities would be interested to return. Even majority of this small number would prefer spending summer months in Kashmir.
This way living in separate colonies for the small number of displaced people could kick up fresh heartburns, rivalry and insecurity. Here it has become mandatory for the Government and the senior separatists besides prominent citizens of the majority community to arrange small plots and equally small dwellings for the displaced people in villages and vicinities they belonged to. Once it was done it would not lead to segregation of one community from the other.
And rightly the PDP spokesman has given vent to his fears on any plan that was being framed for settling the displaced people in separate colonies. People’s Democratic Party (PDP) national spokesperson, Dr Sameer Koul, has backed Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani's opposition to creation of separate colonies for migrant Pandits in the Valley.
Koul has said, "Like Geelani we believe that Kashmiri Pandits should come and settle at their original places along with their Muslim brethren."
He said that the party will oppose creation of separate colonies for the Pandits as it was detrimental for age old communal harmony that existed between the two communities.
Well if the PDP is in favour of migrants settling in the places they had migrated from the Valley should take up the matter with the Government so that suitable arrangements were made for the displaced people in their ancestral villages and vicinities in Kashmir. |
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