At last the State cabinet has updated in piecemeal the part of Prime Minister’s 2008 package for the relief and rehabilitation of displaced persons from Kashmir valley. But it has put a rider at the very outset that any updated facility recommended by the cabinet will have to be financially supported by the Union government. In other words, it means that in case the Union Government does not approve any of the recommendations of the state cabinet it will be dropped. From what has appeared in the print media, the State Government has made no commitment of playing any role in the revision of the package except that of advising the union government what modifications are suggested.
Actually the central government desired that the package be updated and after going through regular process, forwarded to it for acceptance and for financing. The cabinet, in its wisdom, has made various modifications and now these will be sent to the Home Ministry. How will the displaced persons react to the recommendations of the cabinet is a different story. The Cabinet has turned down the proposal of the Revenue Department with regard to extending benefit of incentives for construction of house in Group Housing Societies to those families who have sold land after the coming into force of the J&K Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restraint of Distress Sale) Act, 1997. “Even in the original package the coverage of such families was not envisaged”, the Cabinet decision says. Since bulk of sales took place after 1997, this may become a contentious issue at some time. The Cabinet has directed the Revenue Department to immediately work out an employment package for Kashmiri minorities, who didn’t migrate, on the same lines as is available to the Kashmiri migrants. This is a very humanistic approach and non-migrant youths eligible for employment under the package will benefit from it. However two things need to be said in this behalf. One is that the non-migrant Pandits should not be deprived of their claim to the normal quota of vacancies by being clubbed with the category of migrants. Secondly, the Government has not mitigated the difficulties of those migrants who were provided jobs and posted to the valley in the first instalment of migrant employments under PM’s package. Nevertheless, hopefully many non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits will find opportunity of employment under the revised scheme. The cabinet has decided that the Union Government will be asked to finance the remaining 3000 employments which the state government had committed to finance from its budget.
Cabinet has put its seal on enhancing incentive for construction/ renovation of houses from Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, raising financial assistance for repair and renovation of dilapidated/ unused houses from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh and enhancing incentives of Rs 7.5 lakh for purchase/ construction of house in Group Housing Societies to Rs 20 lakh in favour of those who have sold their properties during the period between 1989 and before the enactment of Distress Sale Act, 1997. Hopefully a large number of displaced families fall in one or the other category stated above. It would have been in fitness of things if the revenue department had made a comprehensive list of the houses of migrants dilapidated, burnt, sold, occupied by security forces or rented out by the owners in all districts of Kashmir. This would make the picture clear and the Government could think of making objective recommendations based on ground reality. Since the construction of dwelling units at various transit camps has been carried out on increased specifications (from 214 sq feet to 515 sq feet) on the analogy of Jagti tenements, the cost per unit of the transit accommodation has been recommended to be enhanced from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh. The Cabinet also approved continuation of cash relief and free ration to the migrant families of Jammu and Delhi for a period of two years even after their return to the Valley. Transit accommodation even if it is only 515 sq feet is in fact to serve as shelter for the returnees till they are able to make final settlement in the valley. Their stay in transit camps is almost indefinite. Revised incentives to be allowed to the orchardists to improve damaged orchards are a welcome step and the migrants should make use of this incentive without loss of time. Likewise small scale industrialists will also be given incentives to revive the industrial units. . The Cabinet also approved enhancement of cash relief from Rs 5000 per month per family to Rs 10,000 per month per family subject to a maximum of Rs 2500 per head per family instead of existing Rs 1500 per head per family. This has been the long standing demand of the displaced persons.
The cabinet also took a big decision of increasing the number of creating eight more courts of Additional Special Mobile Magistrates. With this, the total number of courts of Special and Additional Special Mobile Magistrates created so far with the specific purpose of ensuring clearance of huge number of pending cases has gone up to 36. This will reduce the burden on higher courts where thousands of cases are pending for disposal.
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