Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, May 30: The delaying tactics of the State Government in according Cabinet sanction to one time settlement package of PoJK refugees has generated a lot of resentment among them.
Dejected over the delaying tactics of the Government in sanctioning the package and submitting the same to Union Government for approval and grant of funds, the PoJK refugees are up in arms to launch a movement for attainment of their rights.
The Revenue Department had prepared a package to grant Rs 25 lakh to per family of PoJK refugees with reservation of seats in professional colleges for their wards on December 24 last year. The same was to be given the Cabinet nod and despite holding many Cabinet meetings the proposal was not kept on its agenda so far though several pleas by the refugee organizations.
With the change of guard at Delhi the refugees were hopeful that their long pending demand will be met and the package prepared by the State Government will see the light of the day, said Rishpal Singh a refugee leader. But its fate hangs in balance as it has not been remained a priority of the Government which instead of giving it a Cabinet nod has submitted the entire package to Sageer Committee for examination, he added.
He said much to the chagrin of the refugees the Sageer Committee has dumped the package. It neither returned it to GAD so far nor submitted any report. This shows total double standards of the State Government towards the refugees who are waiting for justice for last over 60 years.
“We are left with no alternative but to come to streets’’, said Rajiv Chuni another refugee leader. He said the Government was deliberately playing with the cause of refugees whose three generations have suffered immensely due to callousness of the successive Governments.
Chuni said the package prepared by Revenue Department in December last years is handing in balance for last over six months and its fate is not known. The Government was hoodwinking the refugees on the issue, he added.
He warned that in case the package was not submitted to the Union Government within 10 days the refugees will be forced to take to streets and launch massive protests.
When contacted the Minister of State with independent Charge of Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Aijaz Ahmed Khan said that State Government as well as Congress Party has a commitment with refugees cause and it was the Coalition Government which for the first time took an initiative for the one time settlement of PoJK refugees. “We started an exercise in this regard for the first time which was not started by any previous Government so far’’, he added.
He said the package has been framed and it will be put before the State Cabinet as it is on top of the Coalition Government as well as Congress Party agenda.
The BJP MP Avinash Rai Khanna who has taken up the issue of PoJK as well as West Pak refugees in Parliament and led a protest demonstration of refugees in Union Capital last time said that refugees settlement was priority of BJP and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has himself declared it during his Hiranagar election rally in Jammu early this year.
He said BJP will look why the State Government has not submitted the package to Centre so far and take up the issue with it soon as party is committed to ameliorate the lot of these hapless people as well as all refugees including West Pak refugees, Kashmiri migrants and Jammu migrants.
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