Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 14: Due to the efforts of SOS International, the significant and much awaited process for reuniting the PoJK displaced families, settled outside Jammu and Kashmir, with their roots began today with the formal submission of their application forms for domicile registration with the office of Relief Commissioner, Jammu.
Rajiv Chuni, chairman, VK Datta general secretary, MM Sudan and Tejbir Bakshi both senior members of SOS International – an organization for PoJK Displaced Persons, formally submitted the registration applications on behalf of some families from PoJK, who were settled outside Jammu and Kashmir by then Government because of non-availability of sufficient space to accommodate them here.
“With this, dream of these original natives of Jammu and Kashmir to reunite with their roots will get fulfilled after a gap of more than 70 years since their forced displacement from homes and hearths following tribal raids in PoJK” Chuni claimed.
He said that there are around ten thousand families that were settled outside Jammu and Kashmir after their displacement from PoJK. “These families are original residents of the Maharaja’s State of Jammu and Kashmir and a number of them even have PRCs,” he said and opined that there was no need of fresh registration of these displaced families with the Relief Commission as they were already registered with the concerned Government authority as PoJK DPs.
Reiterating that historic decision of the Government to accord Domicile certificate to the displaced families has reunited these PoK DPs with their roots, Chuni said that his organization would educate people on the subject.
He appealed to all PoJK Displaced families, settled outside Jammu and Kashmir, to take the opportunity for reuniting themselves with their roots by becoming a formal domicile of the land of their ancestors since centuries.
“While the Government is offering Domicile of Jammu and Kashmir to everyone residing here for the last 15 years, the PoJK Displaced families outside J&K whose ancestors had been living here for more than 15 centuries, must not miss the bus to reunite themselves with their roots,” Chuni added.