Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 23: State Government has failed to strictly implement the Supreme Court order on Jammu migrants, who have yet not been paid arrears of cash assistance of three years on the pretext of financial constraints.
In pursuance of Supreme Court order, 1054 families belonging to various districts of Jammu province were registered after carrying out proper verification by CID authorities.
From October 2007 onwards, these families were provided with monthly cash assistance and free ration continuously. However, arrears from the year 2004 to September 2007 have not been paid on the pretext of financial constraints.
The non-clearance of arrears is notwithstanding the fact that Government had committed in Supreme Court to pay Jammu-based migrants the arrears from 2004 to 2007.
This was admitted on the floor of the Legislative Assembly by Minister for Relief and Rehabilitation in response to the question of BJP MLA from Reasi, Ajay Nanda.
He said that with the improvement in situation, it was decided to rehabilitate Jammu migrants at their native places and a package for an amount of Rs 91.56 crore was submitted to Union Government in June 2013 with the prior approval of State Government.
“The approval of the Union Government in this regard is still awaited”, the Minister said.
It is pertinent to mention here that out of total 1054 families, three migrated from Poonch, 172 from Rajouri, 886 from Reasi, 168 from Doda/Kishtwar and 225 from Ramban due to militancy.
The expenditure on account of Kashmiri migrants is being paid out of Security Related Expenditure funds being provided by Union Government while as expenditure on account of relief and ration to Jammu migrants is being met out of meager State resources.
An amount to the tune of Rs 57154 lakh has been spent on cash assistance and food grains to Kashmiri migrants from 2010-11 till March 18, 2015 while as only Rs 1397 lakh has been expended for relief to Jammu migrants.
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