Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 20: About one dozen shops of displaced Kashmiri Pandits were demolished by Jammu Development Authority (JDA) in Muthi Phase 2 near here, today.
The JDA men and machinery swooped this afternoon in the camp and launched the demolition drive despite the pleas of the hapless shopkeepers that they lost their only source of living and with demolition of these shops their children and families will come on roads in the same way as happened during the black day of 1989 when they were forced to leave Kashmir by the Pak sponsored terrorists and forced to take shelter under open sky in Jammu and other parts of country.
These shopkeepers and their family members even prayed for mercy before the demolition team and wailed and sobbed before them but they turned down all their pleas and demolished all the temporary structures which had been their source of livelihood.
“The life has become uncertain for us one again after the JDA men swooped on the camp and demolished our temporary shops” said Jawahar Lal who was also running a small shop in the camp for last 32 years. “I have turned frustrate now and don’t know what to do and how to feed my family as with hard efforts I had managed to establish this shop”, he added.
Same were the views of other shopkeepers and their family members. They wanted to know is this the rehabilitation policy of NC president, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah. Ashok Kumar Raina another migrant shopkeeper said “We have been thrown out from Kashmir and instead of rehabilitating us the Government even snatched our livelihood”,.
“What policy the Government has for exiled Kashmir Pandits for whose rehabilitation no concrete steps were taken during last 36 years,. Our ancestral land has been grabbed by anti social elements and land mafia in Kashmir. The administration failed to retrieve that and they are now hell bent to demolish us” said a lady whose husband was also running the shop in the camp.
When contacted Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner, Dr Arvind Karwani said that these shops were on JDA land and Relief Organisation has floated tenders for construction of a shopping complex in TRT Muthi Phase Second and 10 shops will be constructed soon in the camp to be allotted to these shopkeepers.
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