Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 15: All J&K PoJK Displaced Persons Intellectuals Forum held a meeting here, today under the chairmanship of Amrik Singh in which the long pending demands of the refugees were highlighted.
The meeting among others was also addressed by Kuldeep Singh general secretary of the Forum.
The meeting in an appeal to Union Home Minister, Amit Shah urged him to concede the grant of Schedule Tribe II status to the PoJK displaced persons who have been displaced from those areas of Princely State of J&K which is under forcible occupation of Pakistan on the same pattern as has been granted to the people of Rajouri and Poonch districts.
The meeting said that the community of the PoJK displaced persons is a Pahadi Tribal community which belongs to Pahadi ethnic society having common ethnicity and culture with the common dialect. The Forum reiterated that the PoJK displaced persons are spread across the Line of Actual Control and their population is more than 15 lakh and they already possess the same attribute of Pahadi Tribal as possessed by those granted Scheduled Tribe II status. The PoJK displaced persons over the years have been living in the very harsh conditions because of the forced displacement, it said.
The Forum said since 1947 this community has no opportunity to compete with other communities due to which they lagged behind in social progression for which they may have been socially , economically and politically deprived.
Keeping these facts in view the Forum said the case of PoJK displaced persons is far better than Pahadi community who did not face any burnt of displacement. The members of POJK community settled in Poonch and Rajouri districts got the Pahadi status but those who are not settled in Poonch and Rajouri have been denied this status.
The Forum said that Government of J&K in principle has agreed in State Assembly in response to a question that PoJK displaced persons will be granted ST II status.
The Forum expressed the hope that on the pattern of granting the ST II Status to displaced persons settled in Rajouri and Poonch, the PoJK refugees settled in other areas of Jammu, Kathua, Samba and Udhampur districts will also be given justice.
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