Dear Editor,
We on behalf of POJK DPs settled in different states of India after partition, appreciate the State Times for raising the voice of all the DPs. The space given to the article of Sr. Journalist and Social Activist Daya Sagar on 17th, 21st and 28th Sept. 2016 in your paper is more important than the work done by the Joint Parliament Committee Reports of the Central Govt. If the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and Central Govt. sincerely want to address the grievances of the POJK DPs of 1947 and other DPs, then all efforts should be made to implement the suggestions made in this article.
Undoubtedly POJK DPs are running from pillar to post for the last 70 years for getting the claims of their properties left back in POK. The present one time settlement of about Rs. 2,000 Cr which has been allocated for POJK DPs of 1947 and 1965,1971 but 5,300 families duly registered with the governments but settled outside J and K have been excluded without any logic and reason from this new package. Like DPs residing in Jammu region, an Ex-gratia amount of Rs. 3,500 per family was disbursed to these DPs through the different Rehabilitation Offices established under Provincial Rehabilitation Office, Jammu. One such office was established at Jallandhar City of Punjab for disbursing the Ex-gratia amount to the DPs residing in Punjab. After a long process of investigations and thorough scrutiny of all the relevant documents, the amount was disbursed through banks to the DPs by the PRO, Jammu. Now we are unable to understand the negative response of Central as well as State Govt. to include these families in this package. We place our case through your news paper before all the political parties and social organisations to raise a voice in our favour, who have been deprived of all the benefits provided to all other DPs.
Harbans Singh Mahalwee
General Secretary,
The Muzzaffarabad Refujees Welfare Society,
Punjab