Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Nov 2: The West Pak refugees are another lot of hapless people who are the victims of special status granted to the State from last 70 years now. Not to speak of granting citizenship rights to them, these ill fated people have even been deprived of other facilities to lead a respectable and honourable life.
Two generations of the West Pak refugees have passed away demanding citizenship rights in J&K since their displacement from areas of Pakistan during the partition of India in 1947 except assurances neither the successive State nor the Union Governments showed any sincerity in this regard, with the result they are forced to lead a miserable life like the second class citizens.
Despite the directives from the Union Government to the State Government regarding issuance of caste certificates to the West Pak refugees for getting benefits of reservation in Central Government jobs and to avail the various welfare schemes launched by the Union Government from time to time, they remained victims of State’s apathy. The successive State Governments have failed to address their issues proactively, sources said.
The State authorities claimed that caste certificates are being issued to the refugees which is not a fact as some Tehsildars have out-rightly denied issuance of caste certificates to them on the pretext that there is no order from the State Government in this regard.
Though the Ministry of Home Affairs in its letter last year addressed to State Government as well as heads of Central forces had also taken serious exception that the directions issued in 2002 were not implemented till date by the Central Armed Police forces and it has issued a fresh rejoinder to the CAPFs but to no avail.
What can be more callousness on the part of authorities towards these hapless people is that the Union Home Ministry’s directives regarding grant of admission to their wards in technical education institutions and KVs has also not seen light of the day and the authorities in the State have shown a casual approach to it.
The letter of Union Home Ministry addressed to the concerned Ministry in the State is pending disposal for years together due to lack of will on the part of the authorities in the State. To complete the formality, the letter was forwarded from Civil Secretariat to Divisional Commissioner Jammu who in turn forwarded the same to DC Jammu.
To complete the official formalities the DC forwarded it to principals of Government Engineering College and Technology Jammu and Principal Polytechnic Jammu as well as Principals of KVs but no concrete steps were taken on ground in granting admissions to the wards of West Pak refugees in technical institutions as well as KVs.
However, the president of West Pak refugees Labha Ram Gandhi also did not spare the Central Government for the present condition of refugees saying had it been sincere it could through a legislation of Parliament provide one or two percent quota in Central government jobs to them. Besides, the Central Government can also issue circular to the Technical Education Departments of all states to grant one percent reservation to these refugees in professional colleges which, it has not done so far. Merely writing a letter to State government is not enough, hen added.
He said the Union Government should show its will to redress the problems of these refugees instead of throwing ball in the court of J&K Government.
He said the Central schools are directly under the control of HRD Ministry which through a circular can make mandatory the admission of the wards of West Pak refugees in KVs and how KV Sangathan can ignore the same. But this was not done for obvious reasons, he lamented
The irony of fate is that their counterparts who also migrated from Pakistan and settled in other parts of the country instead of J&K rose to the level of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister as well bagged other higher positions in Government in other States or at Centre but justice still eludes them in J&K.
Though the dawn of democracy rekindled the new hope for the people of India after getting emancipation from 200 year old British rule, the problems of the West Pak refugees compounded day by day. Nobody can understand these hapless people better than them. According to Labha Ram Gandhi “”after the killing of thousands of the community members and losing their homes and hearths our parents and grand parents migrated to this part of India not only for safety and security but with the hope that they will lead an honourable and dignified life here”.
“But all their hopes dashed to ground as we were deprived of the basic citizenship rights in India despite being the largest democracy of the world”, he added.
Sources said these hapless people have no right to purchase even one sq feet of land in this border State where they are considered temporary residents for last 70 years now, courtesy to its Special Constitutional position.
Except promises, these people got nothing and they have to struggle a lot for earning their two times meal. As the State government jobs have been made out of bound for them due to special status of the State, the West Pak refugees are also facing many hardships in getting Class III and Class IV jobs in Central Government departments. The reason being that majority of them belonging to reserved categories fail to get the caste certificates from the Revenue Department, sources added.
“Some tehsildars issue caste certificates to us while others are creating hurdles saying that there is no order from the Government in this regard”, said Labha Ram Gandhi.
He said Tehsildar RS Pura, Khour and Garigarh have denied issuance of the caste based certificates on the pretext that there is no standing order from the Government in this regard.
The caste certificates were needed by the refugees from West Pak for their appointment under SC category for appointment in various Central Government agencies as well as Central armed forces.
Admitting that the refugees were facing the problems in getting caste certificates, Union Minster in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh said that a special recruitment drive was launched by Centre in para military forces to provide jobs to their wards. But they could not produce the caste certificates to fill up the required column in the recruitment form due to which they were unable to qualify for the job.
The Union Minster said that he led a team of these refugees to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh recently at New Delhi and the issue was discussed with him. “To sort out the issue I had given a suggestion that a Committee of prominent persons among the refugees be constituted who will take responsibility of identifying the genuine cases and recommending and certifying their names to respective Tehsildars on the basis of which they can issue caste certificates”, Dr Singh added.
The second issue raised by these refugees is appointment of a Nodal Officer for them who can look into their day to day problems and take steps for their settlement. Otherwise they have to rush to Delhi every time for redressal of even a minor problem. This was in principle agreed by Union Home Ministry but due to prevailing tension on borders the decision got delayed, he added.
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