Provide 10 Assembly seats, Pahari status to PoJK DPs: Forum

President, All J&K PoJK 1947 Sharnarthi Intellectual Forum, Amrik Singh, flanked by others addressing press conference in Jammu. —Excelsior/Rakesh
President, All J&K PoJK 1947 Sharnarthi Intellectual Forum, Amrik Singh, flanked by others addressing press conference in Jammu. —Excelsior/Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 4: All J&K PoJK 1947 Sharnarthi Intellectual Forum has urged upon the Union Government to provide at least 10 Assembly seats to the DPs out of total 24 seats, and also Pahari and Minority status to this community residing in J&K and outside.
Addressing a press conference here today, Forum president, Amrik Singh and general secretary, Surjit Singh said that Modi Govt provided Rs 2000 crore Relief Package for the PoJK DPs @ Rs 5.5 lakh per family during 2016 but still many families especially those residing outside J&K have been ignored. Even till today, 27,918 families are left landless. They demanded that DPs be provided relief package at the rate of Rs 30 lakhs per family as recommended by JPC.
They further demanded that PoJK seats of de-freezed and at least 10 seats be provided to the PoJK DPs. They said Mendhar seat has already been defreezed out of 25. They also demanded Pahari status for the DPs as all of them are Pahari speaking and belong to parts of Rajouri, Mirpur, Kotli, Palandari, Rawlakote, Poonch and Muzaffrabad.
They further demanded Minority status for them and pointed out that unfortunately majority community is getting minority status benefits in J&K. They also demanded official status for Punjabi language as this language has been facing discrimination. Apart from Dogri, Kashmiri and Urdu, Punjabi language must get its due place in J&K UT, they added.
They regretted that three Commissions had given their report during last six decades but not even single recommendation was implemented by the previous respective Governments. A population of over 15 lakh is still waiting for full and final settlement. They sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister, Amit Shah into the matter.