Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 21: Kashmiri Pandit Sabha (KPS), Jammu while expressing its apprehensions about the recently framed domicile law by Union Home Ministry demanded that the Kashmiri Pandits who had left the Valley prior to mass migration in1990 facing atrocities etc be also brought in the ambit of new domicile law as they are bonafide the residents of the J&K.
In a memorandum submitted to Lt. Governor, G C Murmu here, today by KP Sabha chief, K K Khosa it said “the community already feels crestfallen and disappointed due to its forced exodus from the land of its forefathers and inability to regain it even after the passage of three torturous decades,. The dejection and disappointment assumed even greater magnitude considering that a very sagacious and resolute leader like Narendra Modi has been adorning the office of the Prime Minister for the past six years and yet there has been virtually no progress in this regard”.
It said out of the widespread Kashmiri Pandit diaspora who have migrated from the Valley from the year 1931 onwards mainly due to persecution of all hues, more than 70 percent including their progeny have become ineligible to obtain the domicile certificate under the new law.
Moreover while there is no objection to eligibility provisions made for those who belong to rest of the country, yet applying the same conditions to those who were forced to leave the Valley from time to time and who kept clamoring for a safe and honorable return is blatantly unjust.
It said there is no clarity about the status of those Kashmiri Pandits and their children who possess a valid State Subject certificate from the designated authorities issued prior to the abrogation of art 370 and 35 A.
There is yet another category of KPs who did not get themselves registered as migrants with the Relief Commissioner in the year 1990. Since a very large number amongst them went out of the State in search of livelihood and have stayed there for more than 15 years, today they and their children stand deprived of their inalienable rights to return to the Valley under this law which is injustice.
The memorandum said that any new notifications which the GOI intends to issue in future, must necessarily improve upon the rights of the Kashmiri Pandits as they existed prior to the abrogation of art 370.
It demanded that the GOI and the UT governments must take the Sabha into confidence before any new notification is envisaged.
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