24.1.17

Resettling Kashmiri Pandits

The Jammu - Kashmir government has identified 100 acres of land across eight locations in the Valley for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits displaced by militant violence in the early 1990s.
Young candidates from registered Kashmiri migrant families will be given government jobs in the Valley and put up in transit accomodation here as part of the Prime Minister's resettlement package.

The eight locations are spread across all the Valley's 10 districts. While candidates had been found for 1,700 jobs promised under the Prime Minister's rehabilitation package, and some of them put up in transit accommodations at Budgam and Qazigund, the selection process was under way for the remaining 4,300.

As many as 62,000 Kashmiri migrant families are registered with the government -of these, 40,000 are registered in Jammu, 20,000 in the national capital, and 2,000 in the rest of the country. The NDA government had, after assuming office in 2014, earmarked Rs.500 crore for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.

Taking up the issue of their rehabilitation, Union home minister Rajnath Singh had, in 2014, written to the then chief minister Omar Abdullah to identify land for resettling them. He suggested that land may be identified near their native places while also keeping in mind the security aspect. But the Abdullah government cited the poll code of conduct, which was in force at the time, as the reason for not taking up the task immediately . He, however, cautioned the Centre, saying that resettling Kashmiri Pandits together would put them at the risk of being targeted by militants.

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