PoJK refugees relief

Displaced families of Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir right from 1947 when they were uprooted from their roots of hundreds of years , most of whom took refuge in Jammu, had been facing apathy on continuous basis at the hands of the successive State Governments in political, economic , educational and other important spheres. Not that they were not raising their voices off and on and bringing home to State and Central authorities numerous problems on account of their displacement and deracination . However, there used to be no appropriate response to their pleas of payment of compensation, relief and initiating proper rehabilitation measures. It may be recalled that only in October 2019, Central Government had announced payment of Rs.5.5 lakh per family to all the displaced families and Rs.1265 crore had been provided for the purpose. In this connection, while the Central Government claimed that a ”historical wrong” had been corrected by addressing their genuine demands on humanitarian basis by taking the decision to pay the compensation money of Rs.5.5 lakh per family, some opposition parties , on the other hand , criticised the move terming the compensation money as ”too meagre”.
It is no denying the fact that these displaced people deserve to be considered in whatever way possible to assuage their decades old feelings of neglect and , therefore, even their demand to be considered at par with the facilities extended to Kashmiri migrants is not unjustified and, therefore, the same needs to be kept in view while considering any further financial package and allied facilities other than the compensation of Rs.5.5 lakh per family already sanctioned in their favour . However, the closure of the umbrella scheme of Relief and Rehabilitation of Migrants and Repatriates and all other sub-schemes etc having evoked strong feelings from the concerned refugees as even though large number of displaced families having already availed of the benefits there-under, yet there were possibly many who could not take the benefit so far due to one or the other reason , therefore, meriting its extension. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that the Central Government has , now, decided to extend the scheme from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with an additional outlay of Rs.1452 crore for the purpose.
The sub-schemes , however, also cover those people who were thrown out of Chhamb and PoK , Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, thousands of Bru refugees , now settled in parts of Tripura as also is extended to the 1984 anti Sikh riot victims. Hence, these schemes are also in favour of affected people other than the ones under reference , the outlay is therefore to be shared by them also and not exclusively by the PoJK refugees. The funds provided for are for the extended period and thus providing an opportunity to the concerned displaced persons earn some income to live an honourable life to take part in the mainstream economic activities. Unless these displaced persons are really treated as part of our society hence given equal opportunities even belatedly to take part in socio-economic activities, they cannot be claimed to have come out of the pangs of long suffering .
Similarly, other groups and families are rightly sought to be brought under the schemes of Relief and Rehabilitation who are affected and even internally displaced due to host of reasons including on account of terrorists’ violence , insurgency, communal violence, left wing extremist violence, victims of mines and cross border violence , IED blasts etc and grants-in-aid or any other financial aid given by the Union Home Ministry to the concerned states/UTs are required to ensure that the succour and relief reached the needy by directly crediting their Bank accounts without any hassles and with completion of lesser formalities but only after establishing proper identity and eligibility.