Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 4: Emphasizing the need for greater attention to the issue of return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants to the Valley, former Union Minister, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta said that this was not only the human problem but also is linked with the core of India.
Responding to the voices for their representation in the State polity, Prof. Gupta said that prior to the out break of militancy the minorities of the Valley were having considerable representation in the State Assembly, Legislative Council as also in the State Cabinet.
In the first elected Government in fifties, the State Ministry was having three ministers of the minorities of the Valley viz Sham Lal Saraf, D.P Dhar and Prof. Harbans Singh Azad. In addition to this Shiv Narayan Fotedar was the Chairman of the Legislative Council but now there is none as such.
Prof. Gupta said that this sad situation is an aspersion on the secular credentials of the National Conference and Congress which ruled this State and this sorry plight of the minorities have happened, which exposed their inner.
He suggested the reservation of at least six Assembly seats in the Valley for the migrants for a considerable period of time and the already announced package in the services for the migrant youth should be implemented in letter and spirit by ensuring their stay in the Valley with a sense of security. All this would help in generating a climate for return and rehabilitation of the unfortunate lot as would also strengthen the secular credentials of the Valley.
Prof. Gupta said that swollen number of migrant families is a matter of serious concern. In 1996, the number of such families were registered as 27000 in Jammu and 20000 out side the State at Delhi, Ahmedabad and other places. But now in Jammu alone the number of such families have gone up to over 42000. These also include about 3000 Kashmiri Muslim families. Many more are said to be in the pipe line. The annual expenditure on relief and other measure is also mounting but with no permanent solution to the tangle getting complex day by day.
He also stressed the need for early settling of the migrants of Jammu areas to their respective districts at the earlier.
Prof. Gupta observed it as intriguing that while the ultras in the Valley are on the run and the atmosphere is cooling some leaders of the main stream are changing their antics to generate more heat than any light but for being out of power. The question is that why they did not do so, when they were themselves in authority for so many years.
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