Jammu, March 1 (Scoop News) – Sticking to the demand of allotment of flats at Jagti, Rajiv Chuni Chairman S. O. S. International – An Organisation for PoK Refugees has warned the govt to issue immediate orders for allotting of flats to PoK refugees otherwise it will be a counter-productive move for the govt.
Addressing a press confrence today in Jammu Rajiv Chuni said that our organisation forewarn the government to concede the demand of PoK Refugees for allotment of Kashmiri Pandit flats at Jagti otherwise PoK refugees shall have no other option but to forcibly occupy these flats. The State govt had not heed to our demand for allotment of flats at Jagti Township constructed at the cost of Rs. 500 crores to PoK Refugees so we are going to occupy these flats forcibly on Thursday 3rd March 2011.
Elaborating the plan Chuni told the reporters that these ethnic Hindu & Sikh minorities and permanent residents of J&K State – the destitute refugees from PoK are languishing in 39 filthy camps under subhuman conditions for the last 63 years in Jammu province and for all these years govt did nothing to provide them with better living conditions. Government has constructed modern flats namely satellite town with all basic amenities at Jagti (Nagrota) by incurring hundreds of crores of tax payer money for a particular class of migrants from Kashmir valley by ignoring the other such worst effected class. Now if the govt shall not heed to our demand for allotment of flats to the PoK refugees in a day or two then there will be no alternative left to us except to forcibly occupy the flats. For this purpose we have planned to assemble at Bikram Chowk, Jammu on Thursday 3rd March, 2011 at 11 am to march towards Jagti in a cavalcade to occupy the flats forcibly.
Mr. Chuni appealed to the common people of Jammu in general and refugees in particular to come and join the “Jagti Chalo” march to get justice, He condemned the attitude of State as well as Central Govt for applying two yard sticks for relief and rehabilitation of valley migrant vis-à-vis PoK Refugees. Govt of India and Govt of Jammu and Kashmir have been generous enough in extending financial and other largesse for Valley Migrants like monthly cash relief, free ration and reservations in professional / technical colleges, Govt jobs but PoK refugees are languishing in 39 filthy camps under subhuman conditions for the last 63 years in Jammu province.
Mr. Chuni said that much of the water has flown down the rivers since the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir has totally merged with main land India and since the proxy war has been unleashed by the Pakistan. It was a welcome move of the Interlocutors Dileep Padgaonkar, Prof. M. M. Ansari and Prof. Radha Kumar to visit one of our 63 years old refugee camps at Bhour Camp on the outskirts of Jammu city and they themselves saw the sad plight of PoK Refugees on the spot. In fact there are 39 such camps in Jammu province where majority among the 12 lac PoK refugees are warehoused and live a ghettoed life.
Mr. Chuni significantly mention that the Govt of India has been committing blunders since its accession with India like unilateral cease fire on 1st of Jan 1949 and singing of Shimla agreement in 1972 when cease fire line was converted to Actual Line of Control (LoC). In present context taking the happenings from 1990 or present stone pelting phenomenon and ignoring all the turmoil since 1947 shall be another blunder and no broad consensus shall be reached.
He said discrimination with PoK Refugees since last 63 years is one of the basic reasons that no political consensus is reached by the govt of India. About 50000 minority Hindu and Sikh religious and linguistic minority families were uprooted after their genocide and are camped in filthy conditions which are worse than Indian slums. They were rendered home less in 1947 and given meagre ex-gratia aid but it is irony of the facts that 3600 families were settled out side the state and cases of 9600 families were rejected uprightly and not even provided a meagre aid or the benefits of camped refugees. PoK refugees are now 1.2 million.
The govt of India in its Kashmir centric policy of appeasement to majority community and liberal relief and rehabilitation policy for Kashmir Pandits (KPs) is flawed and lacks the basic principals of Human Rights and UN charter is further internationalising the vexed problems of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a fact the India can’t vacate the PoK areas as already four wars have been fought with Pakistan with no outcome and only added the problems and miseries of PoK Refugees, Chuni said.
We demand here for fresh registration of all the PoK refugees living in J&K and other parts of India by a special census. Transfer of all the laws for relief and rehabilitation of refugees of partition like extension of “Displaced Persons Compensation and Rehabilitation Act of 1954” in J&K as there is no law to tackle the problems of refugees in Jammu and Kashmir. A uniform policy for PoK Refugees with that of KPs, constitution of PoK Refugees development Board as that of Kissans Dev. Board or SC/ ST board. A comprehensive package for PoK Refugees with special attention to our needs of youth like employment, education and reservation in professional/technical colleges and jobs, deaddiction centres and immediately shifting of camp inmates to the newly constructed satellite towns.
The Press conference attended among others by Dr. Gurmeet Singh, Suchwant Singh, R C Sharma, J. S. Mangal, Netar Parkash, Lalit Kumar, Paramjeet Singh, Roshan Malhotra, Mohinder Singh, Harbans Singh, Balwant Rai Bali, Kundan Lal, Kulwant Singh Bali, Vinod Sawhney, Roshan Lal, Arun Khajuria, Dr. Iqbal Singh, Pradeep Gupta, Om Parkash, Sandeep Kumar, J. N. Thappar and others.