December 16 was a day of massive protests by two categories of refugees in Jammu. One massive protest rally was organized by 1.5 lakh refugees from West Pakistan who were staying in Muzaffarabad before migrating to India in the wake of partition of India and subsequently had to migrate owing to tribal attack. It will be reminded that these refugees have been bringing out protest rallies during the past decades. Nobody listened to them. The refugees from West Punjab are scattered in different places in Jammu region and elsewhere in the country. They had to leave behind all the property of their homes and seek refuge in Jammu as it became possible for them to find shelter there while other parts of the country were burning with violence and butchery.
It is a travesty that even after being thrown out of their places of origin, they suffer on account of non-issuance of state subject certificate or permanent residence certificate which would enable them to get settled and derive the benefits of being the subjects of J&K State. Actually, they are hanging in the air and are bereft of rights and privileges which accrue to them in normal course of things. The State Governments have been callous towards them and they have been treated as outcasts. Their lament is that even after passing 65 years in Jammu their right to grant of State citizenship is relegated to negligence. They are justified in asking how come the State Government has framed Act for return, rehabilitation and employment facility for Kashmiri terrorist who had crossed over to become active subversives with various Pakistani terrorist groups to fight their war with New Delhi. This is again an example of regionalism on which we have reflected earlier also. We know that the State Government is quick to compensate people who are struck by natural calamity like flood, fire or earthquake. But people uprooted from their homes and hearths for no fault of theirs in 1947 are allowed to languish and nobody espouses their cause on humanitarian basis or the laws of common sense. Militants having committed atrocities on innocent people are cared for by the Government, legislature, media and the civil even the sections of bureaucracy. But the refugees from West Pakistan who had been living or serving or doing small business in parts of PoK including Muzaffarabad prior to tribal attack have not been accepted for citizenship. They have been protesting against negligence of the government and sidelining them from becoming recipients of the largesse of the state. But there is limit to injustice and tyranny. They are denied reservation of seats in professional institutes for their boys and girls, they are denied the right to vote for the parliamentary candidate, they are outside the pale of below poverty line and they are denied compensation for the property they were forced to leave behind. The argument brought against them is that they don’t belong to the State. This is only a pretext to keep them out. In their name the State has been obtaining funds but we would like to know how much has been spent on them by way of relief.
Their delegations have met with political leadership in and out of power in the State and at national level too. But except for lip service they have not seen any action on the part of these leaders. It is tantamount to playing with the sentiments of the people.
Apart from this category, there is another category of displaced persons from PoK who have also to tell the same tale. Some of them have been given the PR certificates but there are many who are sill cooling their heels at the office of the administration. Their rights as citizens of the State are denied. There are 9600 DPs’ families of 1947 and about 1600 families of 1971 which have not been registered till date. This is not only discrimination but blatant denial of rights of the people. The Government should not use two yardsticks for measuring identical issues. The legislators shall be betraying their moral duty of not raising the issue strongly in the assembly sessions and bringing pressure on the government to do something about the case of refugees from West Pakistan and displaced persons from PoK.
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