*Creation of 221 admn units in “left-out” areas gets nod
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 16: After prolonged delay and many hiccups, the one-time settlement of Displaced Persons of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and Chhamb has finally crossed the major hurdle with State Cabinet today putting a seal of approval on Rs 9096 crore package, which will be forwarded to the Union Government for funding within next few days. The Cabinet also accepted the report of expert committee recommending creation of 221 additional Administrative Units in the “left-out” areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources told EXCELSIOR that when the rehabilitation package for one time full and final settlement of the claims of PoK and Chhamb Displaced Persons came up for consideration in the Cabinet, a senior National Conference Minister tried to scuttle the move by stressing that more serious discussions should be held before giving nod to the package.
“The issue is sensitive and what is the hurry in deciding the same”, sources said quoting the remarks of the Minister. However, he was effectively countered by Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma and Minister for Housing Raman Bhalla, who said, “this memorandum is in consonance to the earlier decision of the Cabinet”.
“During the past quite long time, this issue is being allowed to linger on one pretext or the other”, said PHE Minister, adding “when Coordination Committee has cleared this package there is no justification behind delaying the matter on illogical reasons. Moreover, unnecessary confusion is being created for the final settlement of the claims of PoK and Chhamb Displaced Persons by linking their issue with West Pakistan refugees”.
Bringing an end to the arguments and counter-arguments, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, according to the sources told his Cabinet colleagues that there was no scope for any more discussion on the issue as these refugees are the permanent residents of J&K and State Government must accomplish its task of recommending package to the Union Government for funding.
Finally, the Cabinet put a seal of approval on the memorandum seeking recommendation of the proposal to the Government of India for providing funds to the tune of Rs 9096 crore for payment of compensation as one time settlement in favour of 36384 PoK/Chhamb families at the rate of Rs 25 lakh per family.
The Cabinet also accorded approval to the constitution of committee under the chairmanship of Divisional Commissioner Jammu with Deputy Commissioners of Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch as its members to settle the issues of pending claims on account of land deficiency/enlistment of left out families etc.
The committee will make its recommendations along with the details of the families entitled to any relief so that matter is settled by the competent authority, sources said while disclosing that Revenue Department has been authorized to move an amendment in Section 3-A of the Agrarian Reforms Act 1976 for bringing Chhamb Refugees of 1965 and 1971 at par with PoK DPs in respect of Evacuee Property land.
With the approval of the Cabinet, the Government would make recommendation to the Government of India for providing reservation in professional colleges outside J&K for the children of refugees of PoK, 1947 and Chhamb DPs; providing reservation in jobs in paramilitary forces, Army and other Central Government services for the children of PoK/Chhamb refugees and inclusion of left out families for providing incentives.
It is pertinent to mention here that EXCELSIOR in today’s edition had exclusively reported that if every Ministers gave respect to the decision of the Coordination Committee, the rehabilitation package for the PoK and Chhamb refugees would get the nod of Cabinet.
The Cabinet also accepted the recommendations of an expert committee, which was constituted to examine the feasibility/demands for creation of new administrative units in the “left-out” areas of Jammu and Kashmir. Now, with this decision, 221 more administrative units, which include 9 Sub-Divisions, 50 Tehsils, 99 Niabats and 63 CD blocks would be established.
These 221 administrative units are apart from 659 units, which were created earlier on the recommendations of Cabinet Sub-Committee and the Mushtaq Ganai Committee. The Cabinet was informed that the recommendation for 221 more units was made by the expert panel after many deliberations and consultations.
“The main basis for recommendations was the feasibility of the administrative units so demanded or proposed and simultaneously to address the sense of exclusion that the people of the left out areas may have felt as a result of not having been included in the administrative units recommended by the Cabinet Sub-Committee”, sources said.
The development related to recommendation of new administrative units was also reported exclusively by EXCELSIOR on October 15.
They informed that the jurisdiction details of the recommended administrative units have also been collected and will be submitted to the Revenue and Rural Development Departments within next some days.
For Kishtwar district, three Tehsils, six Niabats and five CD blocks have been recommended by the expert committee. Similarly for Doda district, four Tehsils, six Niabats and five CD blocks have been recommended.
For Ramban district, two Tehsils and two Niabats and one CD block while as for Udhampur one Tehsil, four Niabats and five CD blocks have been recommended. For Reasi district, three Sub-Divisions, three Tehsils, nine Niabats and six CD blocks have been recommended.
Two Sub-Divisions, one Tehsil and six Niabats for Jammu; one Tehsil for Samba; four Tehsils and five Niabats for Kathua; four Tehsils, five Niabats and five CD blocks for Rajouri; two Tehsils, two Niabats and two CD Blocks for Poonch; three Tehsils, nine Niabats and nine CB blocks for Kupwara; two Sub-Divisions, three Tehsils, eight Niabats and five CD blocks for Baramulla; two Tehsils, one Niabat and one CD Block for Bandipora; three Tehsils, seven Niabats and three CD Blocks for Budgam; one Sub-Division and three Niabats for Srinagar; one Tehsil, three Niabats and three CD blocks for Ganderbal; three Tehsils, three Niabats and one CD block for Pulwama, two Tehsils and two CD blocks Shopian; three Tehsils, two Niabats and one CD block for Kulgam; one Sub-Division, three Tehsils, eight Niabats and two CD blocks for Anantnag; two Tehsils, four Niabats and two CD Blocks for Leh and one Sub-Division, one Tehsil, six Niabats and six CD blocks for Kargil have also been recommended by the expert panel.
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