Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 16: BJP State president & MP, Jugal Kishore Sharma raised the issue of refugees from West Pakistan and PoJK, who had been forced to take refugee in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 and are residing since then here as refugees in Lok Sabha during Question Hour today.
Jugal pointed out that these refugees have become victims of State Government’s lopsided thinking and ideology. The fact of their taking up residence in Jammu and Kashmir has proved to be grave misfortune for them. The West Pakistan refugees have no citizenship status and rights in the J&K though they have been continuously residing here for the last more than 65 years. They have no say in the local affairs as they cannot vote for the Assembly elections nor can they have any property here and are homeless people. The refugees of PoJK have also huge problems which have not been till date addressed by the State Government. Their claims in lieu of their properties left by them in PoJK have not been settled or even addressed till date. This approach of unconcern shown by the State Government is because of its retrograde thinking and mindset.
Jugal Kishore Sharma’s expression of anguish and suffering of the refugees evoked strong sympathetic response from the other members of the House, who in one voice supported that the problems of the West Pakistan and PoJK refugees be attended to at the earliest and should not be allowed to linger on for long.
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