12 members PSC to assess problems of refugees, KPs

Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Oct 29: To study the problems being faced by the migrants in the State, a 12 member Sub Committee of Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Home Affairs is visiting the State in the first week of next month.
The Sub Committee is headed by BJP Rajya Sabha Member, Rajiv Partap Rudy as its convener while Congress MP Naveen Jindal is its co-convener.
According to highly placed official sources, the Sub Committee will visit the State for three days from November 5 to November 7. It will straightway visit Kashmir Valley from Union Capital on November 5 to inspect the transit accommodations provided to displaced employees appointed under PM’s employment package, sources added.
The Sub Committee will reach the winter capital here on November 6 and take the stock of the problems of the West Pakistan refugees, PoK refugees and displaced people from Valley by visiting the migrant camps and refugee bastis here on November 6 and 7, sources, said, adding the Committee members will also meet Chief Secretary on November 7 to discuss the issue threadbare with him.
Out of 12 member Sub Committee, four MPs including Mr Rudy, Mrs Vandana Chavan, Santiuse Kujur and Satish Chandra Misra are from Rajya Sabha while co-convener of the Committee Naveen Jindal, Dr Shafiq-ur- Rehman Barq, Dr Kalai Ghosh Dastidar, Ramen Deka, Datta Meghe, Sanjay Dina Patil, Rathod Ramesh and Neeraj Shekhar are the members of Lok Sabha.
Sources said that Parliamentary Standing Committee chairman M. Venkaih Naidu is likely to visit the State to acquaint himself with the problems of migrants fully but he will not take part in any engagement of Sub Committee.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Home Affairs has sought detailed report from the representatives of Joint Forum of KP organizations and Panun Kashmir regarding the encroachment of land, property, premises of temples, shrines etc in Kashmir Valley so that it was taken up in Parliamentary Standing Committee to resolve the issue, sources said, adding a letter to this effect was sent to KP representatives by the Home Ministry recently.
It may be recalled that Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Mr Naidu held a detailed discussion on the 137th Action Taken Report of the Committee submitted to the Parliament on February 13, 2009 by its then chairperson Sushma Swaraj with the representatives of West Pak refugees, PoK refugees, militancy hit people of Jammu region and Kashmir migrants on July 30 this year in Union Capital.
Later the Union Home Secretary, Anil Goswami also convened a meeting with the representatives of these refugees in Union Capital on September 19 to discuss the Action Taken Report with them. This was followed by another meeting in the last week of September by Parliamentary Standing Committee with Union Home Secretary and representatives of J&K Government in which it was decided to constitute a Sub Committee which will visit the State to study in detail the subjects relating to “Action taken on 137th report on rehabilitation of J&K Migrants’’.
The representatives of all refugee organizations during their meeting with Parliamentary Standing Committee on July 30 this year accused the Government of not implementing the 137th report of the Standing Committee.
In its 137th report submitted to Parliament in 2009, the Parliamentary Standing Committee has made 21 recommendations for ameliorating the lot of displaced people from Valley.
BJP general secretary, Bali Bhagat has been appointed as co-ordinator by all the refugee organizations to coordinate with the Sub-Committee during the visit to the State, sources said.