Excelsior Correspondent
New Delhi, Mar 13: The Joint Human Rights Committee which has been articulating the cause of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community, has asked the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir administration to take necessary steps for addressing the long-standing key concerns of the community, as the minority community of Kashmir is feeling neglected and left out.
In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the Committee convenor and former chairman of the J&K cell of the BJP, C L Gadoo, urged the PM to personally intervene to redress issues such as restitution of houses and landed properties of the Kashmiri Hindu displaced persons, occupied forcible or acquired through other means. The Central and the UT agencies should help the displaced persons and their institutions by providing land, finance and infrastructure to rebuild education and cultural institutions.
The memorandum further stated the need to work out legal and institutional modalities to safeguard and promote ethno-cultural and religious rights of the displaced community, by instituting an autonomous Kashmir Hindu Religious Shrines Board. The Board should oversee restoration, maintenance and management of all their temples/shrines.
Gadoo drew the Prime Minister’s attention to this year’s budget proposals in which Rs one lakh crore has been allocated for J&K. “Nothing has been earmarked for relief, rehabilitation and management of the 45, 000 members of the displaced community,” he said.
On the issue of political empowerment of the community, he said that they used to have sway over three assembly constituencies namely Habba Kadal, Amira Kadal and Pahalgam, during normal times. The Delimitation Commission should be asked to earmark a few constituencies for the community in Kashmir. At the same time special multipurpose election cards should be issued to the community members living in Jammu, Delhi and in other parts of the country.
The memorandum demanded compensation to Kashmiri Pandits for their enormous losses suffered by them in terms of their properties, jobs and other things during the last 31 years of their exile. “The Government of India should appoint an enquiry commission for enquiries to the atrocities committed on Kashmiri Hindus,” it further demanded.
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