DAYA SAGAR
The process for elections to 1st Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K has been initiated nearly 5 years after October 2019. Elections for Phase-I and Phase -II have been over . Elections for phase -III will be held on 1st October. The political parties have ‘also’ shown concern for the POJKDPs 1947 ( families displaced from areas of Indian state of J&K occupied by Pakistan in 1947 ( even 1965/1971) during these elections . BJP has claimed that it was only after BJP came to power in 2016 GOI ordered to pay Rs.5.5 Lakh as one time settlement to POJK DP families where as no earlier government had cared for them and have many more welfare proposals for them in times to come . The Congress party ( Sh. Raman Bhalla , Working President) has not lost the sight and has said that NC- Congress Government had in recommended to Government of India Rs.30 Lakh as one time settlement and in case Congress alliance is voted to power they will see that Rs 30 Lakh is paid as one time settlement. It is not out of place that NC- Congress government had not recommended Rs. 30 Lakh , the recommendation was for Rs. 25 Lakh / per family at uniform rate to all families and that too was technically not correct because settlement has to be proportionate to the loss suffered by individual families. Any Congress could be asked why did they not agitate and impress upon govern of India to pay Rs. 30 lakh or Rs 25 Lakh when government decided in 2016 to pay just Rs 5.5 Lakh and now during elections they have remembered that.
The families of the subjects of erstwhile princely State of J&K ( which acceded to India nearly two and half month after Dominion of India became independent and that too after Pakistan openly engineered attacked on the then Princely State ) who had been displaced from the areas illegally occupied by Pakistan and had not been paid the claims for the properties left behind by them pleading that they were not like other refugees from Pakistan and had been staying in their own country after getting displaced from the areas which “too belong to their own country”.
It is not out of place to mentions here that Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the then Prime Minister of J&K, did feel and understand the plight and conditions of the people who were forced to flee from the areas of Jammu & Kashmir occupied by invaders / forces aided and abetted by Pakistan in October 1947/ thereafter ) and named them as Displaced Persons (DPs) from Pakistan Occupied Areas of J&K ( POJK DPs) vide order No. 1476-C of 1950 dated 16.12.1950 issued under his ( Sheikh’s) own signatures where as . se who had left Jammu & Kashmir and had gone to new born Dominion of Pakistan (West Punjab) on their own were termed as migrants in the same order. Many families had left their hearths even without any ‘change over’ clothing, many could not carry even the property documents, some members of many families could join other members after months of reaching to safer areas , many displaced persons /families had seen their near ones killed / tortured/ raped before their eyes, many young girls/ women were even killed by their own me nfolk to save their honour, many woman committed ‘suicide’ by jumping into rivers / open wells to save their honour. Those who could manage to save their life moved to safer areas of J&K or managed to reach other Indian state
Late S. Bachan Singh Panchi had been struggling for convincing the Government of India and Government of J&K under the banner of J&K Shranarthi Action Committee for providing compensation to them for the properties / assets left behind in any form in case claims cannot be paid due to technical reasons and he had even made a petition before the Rajay Sabha in 1978 S. Panchi . It was on 26th June 2013 that memorandum addressed to S. Man Mohan Singh Ji, the then Honourable Prime Minister was submitted on behalf of POJK DPs by J&K Sharnarthi Action Committee through Divisional Commissioner Jammu by Adv Ronik Sharma under the guidance of M.K. Raina the GS of J&K SAC.
It was only in 2014 that the then NC-Congress government in J&K had initiated ( D.O. letter No. Rev/Rehab/08/2011 dated 20-10-2014 for Rehabilitation @Rs.25 Lakh / family one time full and final settlement of the claims of the POJK Displaced Persons of 1947 AND Chammb Displaced Persons 1965/71 ) some proposals w.r.t to POJK DPs where in among other things it was recommended to GOI that a one time settlement of Rs.25 Lakh be paid to each displaced family of 1947 times( also to those of 1965/1971 war times). Objections to the proposals made by the J&K government were made by POJK DPs & the people working in their cause like that it was not fair to pay same amount to all the families irrespective of the value of the assets / properties left behind and it was also not fair to pin the total number of affected families since no any regular registration for count of displaced families had been done upto then and so strangely 5300 families staying outside after displacement were excluded from the proposals.
Not only that One Hundred Eighty Third Report on problems being faced by refugees and displaced persons in J& K was presented to Rajya Sabha on 22nd December, 2014( that was also laid on the table of Lok Sabha on 22nd December 2014) and was drawn by a sub-committee on Action Taken on 137th Report on Rehabilitation of J & K Migrants of Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs (2013) with Rajiv Pratap Rudy MP as convener that visited J&K during first week of September 2013 for interaction with affected people and State Government had recommended that one settlement of Rs.30 Lakh be paid to each 1947 times displaced family and had also suggested for a regular registration of all the displaced families. No doubt the here too recommending one time settlement of Rs.30 Lakh for all families at uniform rate was not technically fair . But approvals of Government of India for disbursement of one time settlement to POJK DPs were conveyed to J&K Chief Secretary vide letter No. 31/01/2011-R & SO dated 22-12-2016 s/d by Director Rehabilitation ,FFR Division, MHA, GOI but that was not even for Rs 30 Lakh per family but for only Rs. 5.5 Lakh per family.
In reply to Public Grievance registered in PG portal vide registration number PMOPG/E 120161 05093 19 dated 24.1 I .2016 by Daya Sagar -Shri S.K. Parida U/S to GOI, vide No.I9l2l2013-R&SO dated the 13th January, 20t7 , Ministry of Home Affairs Government of India (FFR Division) 2’d Floor, NDCC-I Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi, had conveyed : “Sir, I am directed to refer to your grievance regarding rehabilitation package of Rs. 2000 crore for displaced persons settled outside State of Jammu & Kashmir. 2. In this regard, it is stated that Government of Jammu & Kashmir has identified 36,384 displaced families from Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) of 1947 and Chhamb of 1965 &. l97l and sent a proposal for one time settlement of these displaced families. Accordingly, central assistance of Rs. 2000 crore for one-time settlement of these displaced families to be disbursed “
No doubt large population of POJK DPs are presenting living in the areas of J&K that will go to polls on 1st Oct 2024 and so have remembered the political leaders.
Anyhow in case the political parties eying at power seat are atleast now serious let them make it public that they will get a total number could through a regular registration of all POJK DP families of 1947 and would settle their dues on uniformly for all but by getting assessed the actual value of the assets left behind in 1947 at todays value.
(The writer is a Sr Journalist / Analyst Jammu & Kashmir Affairs)