STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: In the backdrop of misleading figures being projected by the State Government with regard to relief paid to Kashmiri Pandit migrants by concealing non-ration relief migrants as also Muslim and Sikh families registered under relief category with Relief Commissioner, the BJP MLC Surinder Ambardar expressed resentment over ‘disowning of the displaced people’ by successive governments.
Talking to reporters, Ambardar referred to the reported response of the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation to a question by MLA Er Rasheed and said that Rs 302 crore have not been provided during the past 26 years to Kashmiri Pandits alone but the recipients include Muslim and Sikh migrants as well.
Pertinently, according to the Relief Organisation, 38,119 families stand registered as ‘migrants till December 2009, which include 34,202 Kashmiri Pandit families, 2,168 Muslim and 1,749 Sikh families. Of these 13,702 Hindu families are entitled to draw the relief against 2,025 Muslim and 143 Sikh families. Rest of the families are either government employees or pensioners who are not entitled to any kind of cash relief or rations.
Ambardar said that entire amount on account of relief, including free rations, is being borne by the Union Government under the security related expenditure and the State Government, especially the Relief Ministry, doesn’t pay it from the State exchequer. “However, being the nodal agency, the relief does not reach the migrants in time and ironically they are without rations for the past four months”, he added.
On being asked about the figure of Rs 302 crore spent on cash assistance of displaced Pandits, he said that 59,452 families are registered as Kashmiri “migrants” in Jammu and elsewhere. Out of these 38,119 families are in Jammu, 19,338 in Delhi and the remaining in other states. “But only 17,248 families are in Jammu, which is less than 50 per cent of the registered migrants while 4,335 families are registered in Delhi, that is about 21 per cent (receiving cash assistance from the government). He said 5,242 families in Jammu and around 250 families in Delhi have been provided camp accommodation — that is just 10 per cent of the registered families. The remaining families have been left to fend for themselves as successive State Governments have not done much for them.
He, however, maintained that after BJP led government took over reins at Centre two years ago, e-cash assistance has been enhanced from Rs 1,650 per person per family to Rs 2,500 per person per family. “Now that the BJP Government is in power in Jammu and Kashmir displaced Pandits see a ray of hope for themselves as BJP had always stood for the cause of Kashmiri Pandits and is committed to mitigate their sufferings. While taking a dig at Er Rasheed, Ambardar said that his uncanny theatrical dramas have no takers now and he is jobless so that is the reason he wants to be in news by keeping a track of relief assistance of displaced community which is not expected of a legislator. “Kashmiri Pandits have left property worth crores after their exodus from the Valley, which is not visible to the myopic so-called leader”, he said.
