Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 24: Jammu Kashmir Sharnarthi Action Committee (JKSAC) and Movement for Justice for Refugees of 1947 (MJR-47) has sought immediate clarification from the Govt regarding the notification prescribing rules for grant of Domicile Certificate to the residents of UT of J&K, wherein the Govt has claimed that 5300 and other left out DP families of 1947 from PoK settled outside the UT of J&K, have been included in these rules and would be benefitted at par with the other residents of UT of J&K.
President of JKSAC, Gurdev Singh and JS Sudan, Convener MJR-47 observed that these rules for grant of Domicile Certificates are not clear and ambiguous in interpretation and do not clearly define the inclusion of said DP families registered as well as unregistered settled outside, as per the order No. 52-JK (DMRRR) of 2020 dated 16-05-2020. They termed this notification/order as biased and uncarefully drafted, contrary to what has been said in the order, which has put these unfortunate DP families in confusion.
While re-producing order, they said it says that ‘any person who is registered as a Migrant by the R&R Commissioner (Migrant) in the UT of J&K shall be eligible to be treated as Domicile.” It again says,“ There may be other bonafide persons, displaced persons or migrants and their descendents who are not registered with R&R Commissioner (Migrant)…. being registered as migrant with Govt elsewhere”.
They said this order no-where mentions displaced person of 1947 from PoK anywhere as a category who were registered with PRO Jammu as a registering authority besides migrants whose registration authority is R&R Commissioner (Migrant) Jammu. They said that rules defined under order S.O.-166 dated 18-05-2020 defining “J&K grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) rules 2020, Definition of the terms used in the rules are given in para(2) and the persons eligible for the grant of Domicile Certificate are given in para(3)”.
Both these paras no where mentions the DPs being referred to as a class of DPs of 1947 from PoK. Moreover, all those leftout erstwhile residents of J&K particularly DPs of 1947 from PoK were being registered with PRO Jammu. At that time there were no migrants and R&R Commissioner (Migrants) was not in picture, all the records of DPs of 1947 from PoK including 5300 families is lying with PRO Jammu and presently the processing of one time cash relief of Rs 5.5 lakhs is all being looked after by the said authority. They said that R&R Commissioner (Migrants) is not the right authority or forum to approach for registration of leftout DP families of 1947 from PoK. The DPs of 1947 from PoK were forcibly thrown out by Pakistani tribals are a recognized category as their native places are still under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. 5300 registered DP families and other leftout unregistered families went to other parts of the country not by choice but under the circumstances and should be titled and mentioned in order as “PoJK DPs settled outside”.
They appealed to Lt. Governor of UT of J&K and its administration to clarify and issue necessary correction and amendment to the Govt order/notification on Domicile Law.
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