Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Apr 3: Though the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and State Government have been vigorously coordinating efforts for return of militants from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), none of them have done any serious effort to ameliorate the plight of thousands of West Pak refugees, who have been living in agony for the past several years.
The state of affairs can be gauged from the fact that none of the guidelines and directions issued by the MHA to the Jammu and Kashmir Government in September, 2012, which were aimed to address the long pending grievances of West Pak refugees have been implemented on ground.
“This had happened despite the fact that the official communication of the MHA was based on observations made by the Supreme Court in its judgment on the issue, which had suggested that the Government may amend the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of People Act (RPA) and Village Panchayat Act (VPA) to enable the West Pak refugees to qualify for inclusion in electoral rolls of the State Assembly and Panchayats”, sources asserted.
Source stated that the MHA had suggested several other measures including provision of age relaxation for applying in Central Government jobs, benefit of relaxation in cut off percentage for admission in technical institutions by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), eligibility for credit facility under Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme (CGFS); loan facility from banks and issuance of SC-ST-OBC certificates and BPL cards.
Ironically, several top official of the State administration on condition of anonymity confessed that none of these benefits had percolated to the West Pak Refugees.
“The issue had also been taken up by a high level delegation of Congress leaders, led by JKPCC (I) President, Prof Saif-ud-din Soz and series of interactions were held with Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde”, source said adding, “the delegation demanded a high-powered Committee be constituted to be monitored by the PMO or Union Home Ministry to examine all outstanding issues of all kinds of refugees and displaced persons settled in the State”.
The delegation comprising the then Minister from the State included R S Chib, Raman Bhalla, Sham Lal Sharma; Member of Parliament (MP) Madan Lal Sharma and Lal Singh besides Ravinder Sharma, chief spokesman JKPCC and former Minister, Manjeet Singh.
“As a sequel to these high profile interactions, top officials of Home Ministry and State Government held several interactions. The latter was told to work out a comprehensive one time Settlement package proposal before the latter covering all the refugees”, sources remarked.
However, top officials told EXCELSIOR, “though the MHA officials had told nearly five months back the State Government to provide detailed projections in this regard, no groundwork had been done so far till date”.
Former Revenue Minister, Raman Bhalla, when asked about the status of matter commented, said, “the State Government had started a comprehensive village-level survey to identify refugees to benefit from a fresh proposal worth Rs 10,000 crores to solve the problems of all refugees in one stroke”.
However, sources pointed out that a similar proposal worth nearly Rs 1775 crores, which was sent to the Centre in 2011 for one-time settlement of the problems of all refugees is also yet to be approved by the Centre.
Congress MP from Jammu, Madan Lal Sharma said, “several high level delegations of Congress had detailed interactions with the UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister and Home Minister. Thereafter, the State Government had been told to submit a comprehensive proposal to the Centre, but despite the lapse of nearly five months, nothing had been done on ground”.
President West Pakistani Refugee Action Committee, Labba Ram Gandhi said, “nearly 20,000 refugees are fighting for their genuine rights since independence, but all successive Governments failed to address their issues. Though several guidelines and directions were issued by the PMO and MHA, none of those are visible are gound”.
“Special recruitment of wards of refugees in the Central para-military forces as an internal relief was assured by former Chief Minister someome time back, but nothing happened”, he said adding, “issuance of caste and domicile certificates to the children of refugees enabling them to secure jobs in Central Government is one of the requirements”.
Rajiv Chuni Chairman, SOS International – an Organization for PoK Refugees said, “though several officials of State are talking about a comprehensive package, the MHA officials had categorically told us that those proposals had no relevance”, adding, “the proposal should be first passed in the State Cabinet and then forwarded to the Union Home Ministry for its follow-up. The incumbents had told us in clear terms that there is no dearth of funds with Government of India, but a comprehensive proposal has to first come from State Government”.
“Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh on his visit to Jammu in 2004 had assured that grievances of the 1947 PoK refugees would be resolved, but nothing is visible on ground”, he regretted.
The five categories of refugees living in Jammu include those who came here from West Pakistan in 1947 and have been demanding citizenship; those who got displaced from the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1947 and are demanding rehabilitation as well as compensation. Three other categories include displaced persons from Chhamb in the 1965 war, displaced persons from Chhamb in the 1971 war (non-camp) and displaced persons from Chhamb in the 1971 war. These refugees, who were displaced due to the Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 71, have been demanding complete rehabilitation.
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