New Delhi: A Rs 2,000-crore development package for displaced people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) living in the country was on Wednesday approved by the government.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Home Ministry’s proposal to provide enhanced financial aid to 36,384 families, who are mostly living in Jammu region after their displacement from PoK post-Independence. Each of these families will get around Rs 5.5 lakh as aid, a senior official said.
The amount is “one time settlement” for the displaced families and will be released to the Jammu and Kashmir government to be disbursed to eligible families through Direct Benefit Transfer.
The refugees from West Pakistan, mostly from PoK, settled in different areas of Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts. However, they are not permanent residents of the state in terms of Jammu and Kashmir Constitution.
Some of the families were displaced during Partition in 1947, and others during the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan.
While most of these people are allowed to exercise their right to vote in national elections, they have yet to be identified as permanent residents of the state under the terms of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution.
In 2014, the National Conference-Congress Government led by Omar Abdullah had submitted proposal with regard to provision of funds to the tune of Rs 9096 crore for payment of compensation as one-time settlement in favour of 36,384 families who were displaced from Pakistan occupied Kasmir (PoK) and Chhamb areas.
The state government had recommended a payment of Rs 25 lakh per family.
Jammu and Kashmir Sharanarthi Action Committee (JKSAC), an organisation representing the displaced people of the PoK has been maintaining that the package should not be seen as a final settlement as Rs 9, 200 crore was required to settle all of them.
The Modi government had in January 2015 approved certain concessions for the refugees from West Pakistan settled in Jammu and Kashmir after considering the problems being faced by them.
The concessions include special recruitment drives for induction into paramilitary forces, equal employment opportunities in the state, admission for the children of refugees in Kendriya Vidyalayas, among others.
More than 36,000 refugee families – mostly comprising Hindus and Sikhs – have been living in Jammu and Kashmir.
These families crossed over to the Indian side following the wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
The relief for these families was first announced as part of the Rs 80,000 crore package for Jammu and Kashmir by PM Narendra Modi in November last year.
“The package is likely to get cabinet approval soon,” a home ministry official involved in the process of finalising the details said on condition of anonymity.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has identified 36,348 families eligible to get relief under the package.
This package is over and above the relief provided to PoK refugees settled in Jammu and Kashmir till now. It will be treated as a one-time settlement of compensation claims by the families.