[Reader-list] NCM recommends Kashmiri Pandits be treated as minorities

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

*NCM recommends Kashmiri Pandits be treated as minorities*

London (PTI): The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has recommended
that lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits, forced to flee from Jammu and Kashmir, be
treated as minorities and facilitated to get employment in Delhi and other
places, a member of the Commission said on Thursday.

"We recommended to the Government of India that Kashmiri Pandits should be
treated as Minorities and extended all facilities applicable to such
groups," Harcharan Singh Josh, Member of the Commission told newsmen at
Kingsway Lodge in Hounslow shortly before leaving for Delhi after a
week-long visit to the UK.

In Delhi alone about 800 families of the Pandits were rehabilitated and a
number of girls from the Pandit families were provided jobs in government
schools as teachers, Josh said.

During his visit here, Josh, also led a delegation of leading NRIs here to
the High Commissioner of India to the UK, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee and raised
complaints from members of the Sikh community about delay in getting visas.

Mukherjee assured them that the visa facilities were now outsourced but if
there were any specific cases he would look into them and take remedial
measures.

Josh was accompanied by Councillors Darshan Singh Garewal, Pritam Singh
Garewal, Gopal Singh Dhillon, Jagdish Sharma, leading NRI hotelier Amrao
Atwal and NRI entrepreneur Sunil Chopra.

Josh also visited Gurudwaras and Temples in Southall and Leeds and met
representatives of minority communities and listened to their problems.