Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 31: West Pakistan refugees today celebrated the approval of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha led administration to grant them proprietary rights on the State land.
The Administrative Council of the JKUT, which met here under LG Manoj Sinha’s chairmanship on Tuesday accorded sanction to grant proprietary rights on the State land in favour of West Pakistani displaced persons along with displaced persons of 1965.
“This move will empower thousands of refugee families across Jammu region. The decision fulfills demand of all connected families, which have been requesting for ownership rights since the past so many decades,” an official spokesman said.
Post J&K Re-organization Act 2019, domicile rights have been conferred by the Centre to the West Pakistan displaced persons.
“Vesting of proprietary rights to West Pakistan displaced persons/refugees on State land would bring them at par with the displaced persons of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and their long pending demand will also be fulfilled,” the spokesman said.
The administrative council also approved conferment of proprietary rights upon displaced persons of 1965 in respect of state land.
The Government has always remained committed to provide benefits to the displaced persons of 1965 as has been granted to displaced persons of 1947 and 1971, the spokesman said.
He said the Revenue department shall ensure that proper safeguards are built in the operational guidelines to prevent any misuse particularly unauthorized encroachments on the state land.
West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee president, Labba Ram Gandhi extended gratitude to the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha for the decision and said the news has brought smiles on the faces of the community living in different parts of Jammu for the past over seven decades.
“We are very happy about the development. The land was already with us, some of which was given by the Government for our settlement or earned by our people through hardwork. Some two years back, the land was taken away from us and included in state land,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi, who led a celebratory rally at Maharaja Hari Singh Park, said the decision of the Lt Governor administration came as a big relief to the community which was left disappointed and approached the Government for redressal of their grievances. The refugees were agitating for the last several decades for it.
“With granting of proprietary rights over land, we are now the true citizens of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, adding as per the official records, there were 5,764 families who migrated from West Pakistan into India and settled in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. Gandhi further said that over 46,000 Kanals of state land was given to the displaced community, which had always felt discriminated against before the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
“Before 2019, we were only eligible to vote in the Parliamentary elections and had no say in Assembly or Local Bodies elections. The time has changed and we have got our genuine rights. We can now vote in Panchayat and Assembly polls and even field u-our candidates,” Gandi said.
BJP Sharnarthi Cell led by its convenor Pt Ashok Khajuria also lauded the decision of the LG Administration to grant proprietary rights to the West Pak refugees and said now WPRs will have the right to cast vote in the Assembly and Local Bodies elections. He termed this move as historic decision in favour of refugees of 1965.
Meanwhile, POJK DPs leaders Rajiv Chuni and Capt Yudhvir Singh Chib also welcomed this decision of the LG’s Administration in J&K UT and said that West Pakistani refugees were struggling for it since long. They, however, said that their lands on which West Pak refugees were temporarily settled or on which they were sitting as tillers, should be protected.
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