Houses for KPs in Srinagar, Badgam: Rao

No Hindu family has returned to Valley

NEW DELHI, Dec 19: The Union Government does not find fault with the assessment made by the Jammu and Kashmir government vis-a-vis selection of ‘safe’ places in the districts of Srinagar and Badgam for the rehabilitation of the displaced members of the Kashmiri Pandit community.

The Centre, in fact, has approved the ‘Action Plan’ prepared by the J&K government for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants in the Valley.

Doubts, if any, in this regard were set at rest by the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr Vidyasagar Rao, in the Lok Sabha. He informed the House that the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has prepared an ‘Action Plan’ for the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants.

Elaborating on it, Mr Vidyasagar Rao pointed out, while responding to a question by MR Ramdas Athawale, that in the first phase of this ‘Action Plan’, it was proposed to rehabilitate as many as 2122 families in 1065 houses in selected clusters located in areas having “sizeable Kashmiri Pandit population” and where security was already provided.

MR Rao said that to begin with, 166 houses forming 15 clusters in the districts of Srinagar and Badgam had been identified. And they, according to him, are considered ‘safe’ for the return of the migrants. He added that the process of contacting the owners of these houses and seeking their consent for return on the basis of a rehabilitation package announced by the J&K government “is in progress”.

At the same time, Minister of State for Home admitted that the government had reports making it clear that no family (of Hindu migrants) had so far agreed to return to the troubled Valley.

Mr Rao also informed the House that nearly 55,666 families had been displaced due to terrorism and unrest in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Of these, about 4597 Kashmiri Pandit families are living in the migrant camps in Jammu, 238 families in Delhi and 18 families in Chandigarh.

Mr Rao told the Rajya Sabha during question hour on Wednesday that the J&K government’s ‘Action Plan’ envisaged rehabilitation grant per family at the rate of Rs 1.50 lakhs, grant from repair of houses at the rate of Rs 1 lakh for houses intact and Rs 3 lakhs for houses damaged, grant for household goods at the rate of Rs 50,000 and furniture at the rate of Rs 50,000, interest free loan at the rate of Rs 1-2 lakhs per person, compensation for loss of income from agriculture up Rs 1.50 lakhs per family, interest-free loan of Rs 1.50 lakhs per family for investment in agricultural operations and sustenance of Rs 2,000 per month for one year.

In his reply to a question by Mr Janeshwar Mishra, Mr Vidyasagar Rao made it plain that with a view to achieving the objective “expeditiously”, the “Action Plan” will be implemented in phases. The first phase has been estimated to cost about Rs 43.94 crores.

Mr Rao reiterated that the clusters selected by the J&K government in the districts of Srinagar and Badgam were considered ‘safe’ for the return of Kashmiri migrant owners of the houses.