[Reader-list] 'Nearly 59, 000 Kashmiri Pandit families migrated from Valley'

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

'Nearly 59,000 Kashmiri Pandit families migrated from Valley'*PTI

New Delhi:* The government on Wednesday said nearly 59,000 Kashmiri Pandit
families are reported to have migrated from the Valley following the
outbreak of militancy in the 1989-90.

"Due to on set of militancy in 1989-90, 58,697 families are reported to have
migrated from the Valley and registered as migrants," Minister of State for
Home Affairs Ajay Maken told Rajya Sabha in a written reply today.


They have settled in Jammu (38119 families), Delhi (19338 families) and
other states (1240 families), Maken said.

"In order to mitigate the hardship faced by the Kashmiri migrants, a cash
relief at Rs 1250 per head per month subject to maximum of Rs 5000 per
family per month is being provided to eligible families. This scale is
effective from July 2009," he said.

For facilitating the return of migrants to the Valley, a comprehensive
package of Rs 1618.40 crore was announced in 2008 which provides for various
provisions for rehabilitating them, he said.

Maken also gave out the data on status of temples in the Valley saying out
of the total 430 temples that existed before migration, 260 are intact, 170
damaged and 90 were renovated.

In a separate reply to a question on people with refugee status in Jammu
region, Maken said "the number of persons migrated from West Pakistan and
settled in Jammu region at present, is approximately 1.5 lakhs."

 "In order to mitigate their problems, the Prime Minister announced a
package for J and K on April 25, 2010. The package, inter-alia, provides for
concessions to the children and grand children of West Pakistan refugees
settled in Jammu and Kashmir in the matter of admission in the technical
education institutions approved by the AICTE, bank loan facilities without
collateral guarantees provision of vocational training under skill
development initiatives," he said in his reply in Rajya Sabha.

"The West Pakistan refugees are citizens of India and are allowed to
exercise their right to franchise in the Parliamentary elections. In so far
as the issue of granting them State Subject status is concerned, the state
government has not been able to meet their demand as it has legal
implications," Maken said.

-- 
Aditya Raj Kaul

India Editor
The Indian, Australia <http://www.theindian.net.au/>

Blog: http://activistsdiary.blogspot.com/