Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 22: Rattan Lal Gupta, Provincial President National Conference today reiterated the demand of releasing pending amount of compensation to PoK refugee families as Government has provided only first installment worth Rs 5.5 lakh to the displaced families out of promised Rs 20 lakh.
In a statement issued here, the senior NC leader said that during his party’s dispensation under former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, National Conference had proposed one time settlement by providing Rs 25 lakh compensation to each refugee family and therefore, the same is needed to be examined and provided by the Centre.
Recalling the past horrible experience of displaced PoK families which left their respective places in 1947, 1965 and 1971 leaving behind everything they possessed, Rattan Lal said that it was the then NC Government which provided all the required support to these displaced people to start their lives once again and live with dignity and pride. He said that later the then NC Government headed by Omar Abdullah had taken up their issues with the Centre and had recommended Rs 25 lakh per family for their comprehensive settlement in Jammu and Kashmir.
Gupta said that the Central Government had considered and agreed to provide Rs 25 lakh per family as a compensation for their comprehensive settlement after Omar Abdullah projected the issue before the Centre. “Subsequently, the Centre has released Rs 5.5 lakh as first installment but the rest of amount is still pending and therefore the same should be released at the earliest”, he maintained adding that the government should also include the left-out families who were not provided even the first installment of Rs 5.5 lakh due to different issues including the dearth of necessary records.
He said that the people who had left their homes and hearth in 1947 and faced traumatic conditions for so long must have lost their documents and therefore it is necessary that the Government should take lenient view and try to find some solutions via-media to resolve the issue and provide the genuine amount to the genuine refugee families as soon as possible.
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