Jammu, April 16 (Scoop News) – All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC), an organization of Kashmiri Pandits have decided to boycott the forthcoming Apex committee meeting held on on 18th April 2012 at Jammu.
ASKPC leaders A.N.Vaishnavi, H.L.Chatta and Pyareylal Raina in a statement said that ASKPC will not attended the next meeting of the Apex committee members (constituted by J&K government regarding migrants) which has been called on 18th April at Jammu
They make it clear that the Apex Committee agenda has all along been thrust upon the Kashmiri Pandit community by the government. It may be recalled that the government has made no genuine efforts in the past to meaningfully engage the Kashmiri Pandit community. The issues are suddenly brought up before the Apex Committee, as has been the experience in the previous meetings, without taking the community into confidence.
ASKPC leaders said that in the previous committee meetings, we had tried to raise the genuine issues bedeviling the community but to our dismay, these issues have neither been considered nor has the government shown any inclination to do so in future. The government seems to be working on one-point agenda on the so-called return module of the Kashmiri Pandits and seems to be bent upon to push this module down the throats of the said committee members. We as responsible community representatives cannot be a party to such machinations. The Kashmiri Pandit community has been languishing for more than two decades with multitude of problems and the response of the government has been generally inadequate.
They said the return of the Kashmiri Pandits is a political issue and needs community consensus. The Apex committee is neither empowered nor sufficiently representative in character to go into the issues of such importance that has a long term impact on the fate and future of the KP Diaspora. The Kashmiri Pandit community has suffered ethnic cleansing and exodus in independent India and these issues cannot be pushed under the carpet for long. No confidence building measures have been taken for the community and instead tall promises are made. The displaced people in the camps and non-camps have been agitating and sitting on ‘dharna’ for the fulfillment of their genuine demands regarding enhancement of cash relief, one time compensation to the overage youth and the payment of the balance of ex-gratia in favour of fire sufferers in Kashmir.
We do not want to lend credence to a process that would ultimately lead to dilution of Kashmiri Pandit resolve and struggle of two decades and as such we have decided to boycott the forthcoming Apex committee meeting on 18th April, 2012.”
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