Home Minister Rajnath Singh asks Sayeed for land for Kashmiri Pandits

[Hindustani78]

Rajnath Singh asks Sayeed for land for Kashmiri Pandits

New Delhi, April 7, 2015 (IANS)
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday asked Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to provide land for composite townships for Kashmiri Pandits in the state, an official release said.
Sayeed, who had called on the home minister here, assured him that the state government will acquire and provide land at the earliest for composite townships in the Kashmir Valley, it said.

Issues related to the Home Guards, remuneration for Special Police Officers (SPOs), ex-gratia relief for damage and casualty during cross-border firing and matters of security related expenditure were also discussed during this meet.

"...the central government would ensure that all possible assistance is provided to utilise the full potential of the alliance (of the BJP and the PDP) both -- in the area of security and welfare of the people," Singh said.

The home minister also informed the chief minister that the proposal of the state government for enhanced remuneration to SPOs is being pursued by his ministry.

The issue of raising the Indian Reserve Battalions for the state and effective utilisation of state police was also discussed in the meeting.

The meet was also attended by the senior officers of the ministry of home affairs and Jammu and Kashmir government.

 

[kakathiya]

good

 

[Hindustani78]

J&K govt will provide land for composite township for Kashmiri pandit migrants: Mufti to Rajnath | Zee News
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 7, 2015 - 22:30

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir government will acquire and provide land at the earliest for composite townships for displaced Kashmiri pandit migrants in the Valley, Chief Minister Mufti Mohamamd Sayeed on Tuesday told Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Sayeed, who is here for holding meetings with Central leaders, was told by the Home Minister that he should provide land for the Kashmiri pandits, who had to leave the Valley after in the wake of militancy more than two decades back.

Singh had written a letter to the previous Omar Abdullah government which was followed by another communication to state Governor N N Vohra asking for identification of land for such migrants.

At present, there are about 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families in the country, who have moved from the Valley to Jammu, Delhi and other parts of the country after the state was rocked by militancy in 1989.

The BJP-PDP alliance in the state has mentioned rehabilitation of Kashmiri pandits in their common minimum programme.

The Home Minister asked Sayeed to provide land in the state for composite townships for Kashmiri Pandits and the Chief Minister "assured the Union Home Minister that the State Government will acquire and provide land at the earliest," an official statement said.

During the budget for 2015-16, Rs 580 crore has been earmarked by the Centre for rehabilitation of migrants.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

Let's see.

 

[ranjeet]

I hope this initiative doesn't run out of steam.

 

[Hindustani78]

I hope this initiative doesn't run out of steam.

Rs 40 Lakh flat for Kashmiri Pandits in Srinagar - timesofindia-economictimes

"The Kashmiri Pandits were quite unhappy with the two room tenements built for them near Jammu which were only meant to be transit accommodation. Learning from that experience, the new apartments will be of a good quality and each will cost Rs 40 lakhs. The NBCC has approved the architecture and design of the said flats and will construct the same," the official said. Jobs with monthly salaries up to Rs 30,000 and an Rs 10 lakh grant for those who want to rebuild their damaged houses is also a part of the package. "Rs 500 crore was provided in this year's budget for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits. A bulk of it will be spent on building the new 1000 flats near Srinagar," the official said.

 

[Nicky G]

Good initiative but needs to be time bound with fixed accountability. The Kashmiri Pandits being driven out from their own homes is perhaps the darkest spot on independent India.

 

[Hindustani78]

Kashmiri Pandits resettlement: BJP advocates 'patience' to settle differences | Zee News
New Delhi: With the Centre and PDP expressing different views over the resettlement of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, BJP on Thursday advocated "patience" in addressing the issue.


"Patience. Centre and J&K both propose townships for Pandits. Composite or exclusive is the issue. As per CMP the community should be consulted," BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said.

Madhav said the common minimum programme (CMP) of the PDP-BJP alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir has stated that the process of resettlement of displaced Kashmiri Pandits would begin by "taking the community into confidence"

"Protecting and fostering ethnic and religious diversity by ensuring the return of Kashmiri Pandits with dignity based on their rights as state subjects and reintegrating as well as absorbing them in the Kashmiri milieu. Reintegration will be a process that will start within the state as well as the civil society, by taking the community into confidence," according to the CMP.

Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh hinted that there was no going back on the plans for separate settlement for the displaced community in the Valley as different voices on the issue emerged within PDP-BJP alliance.

"I don't want to go into details. Whatever decision was taken by the central government for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits...The decision remains the same. We had a good talk with the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir (on this issue)," Singh told reporters here hours after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed asserted in the Assembly that there were no plan for a separate cluster for the Pandits.

Clarifying his government's stand in the Assembly, Sayeed said, "I have told the Union Home Minister that they (KPs) cannot live separately (in Kashmir Valley) and they will have to live together... I want to assure the House that we will not make any separate clusters for Kashmiri Pandits."

PTI

 

[Hindustani78]

No separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits in valley: CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed - The Times of India
TNN | Apr 9, 2015, 11.50 AM IST

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed on Thursday said that there was no proposal to set up separate townships for displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the valley.

Responding to the hue and cry raised in the state legislative assembly by Congress and National Conference (NC) legislators over the government's proposal to set up composite townships for migrant Pandits in the valley, Sayeed said: "We have no proposal to set up separate satellite townships for migrant Pandits."

"I have told Union home minister Rajanth Singh that Kashmiri Pandits cannot live separately in the valley and they will have to live together in the society," the J&K CM said.

"We want them to return to their native places and live honourably among Muslim neighbours...because of misinformation an impression is being created that separate clusters would be set up for Pandits."

Despite the chief minister's clarification, opposition lawmakers continued to cause a din in the house over the issue.

150,000 to 300,000 Kashmiri pandits were driven out from the valley by militants in the 1990s.

Both separatists and mainstream politicians have expressed their reservations over the creation of exclusive clusters for the displaced Kashmiri pandits in different districts of the valley.

One such cluster of 200 flats, already stands established at Sheikhpora in Budgam district of central Kashmir. The flats were allotted, on a sharing basis, to displaced Pandits who were employed by the government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's package of 2008. Out of the 200 flats, 31 flats were allotted to the local Muslims who migrated from their native places to other places within the valley.

The move was formulated to attract the Kashmiri pandits to return to their native places by the UPA government.

The plan, however, failed to bring back most displaced Pandits to the valley.

 

[Tshering22]

I hope this initiative doesn't run out of steam.

It is not Rajnath's request Ranjeet bhai. It is the Boss' orders. Mufti knows that he can only push upto a certain limit.

 

[ranjeet]

It is not Rajnath's request Ranjeet bhai. It is the Boss' orders. Mufti knows that he can only push upto a certain limit.

Don't want to jinx in over excitement

 

[Prometheus]

Good move...........Hopefully people will move back.

But i seriously doubt people who were settled in states like Punjab will ever move back............majority have just sold their properties in Kashmir...............its been 3 decades ................even if they move back they will face hard time.

I remember happening similar things happened to Sikhs in 1984..........when they all migrated to punjab selling their lands for very less price or just giving it away in UP and MP states etc............their next generation is not willing to go back as they dont have anything left there...........

 

[Hindustani78]

It is not Rajnath's request Ranjeet bhai. It is the Boss' orders. Mufti knows that he can only push upto a certain limit.

Boss orders ?

 

[Hindustani78]

Updated: April 10, 2015 23:55 IST
Jammu and Kashmir
Four policemen, several protesters injured

Plan to create separate zones for Kashmiri Pandits opposed.
Four policemen and several people were injured in clashes during a protest march here on Friday against the plan to create “separate zones for migrant Kashmiri Pandits” in the Valley.

Police detained several protesters, including Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, and used pepper gas and tear smoke canisters to push back the agitators.

As there were calls for peaceful protests after Friday prayers, the authorities had stepped up the presence of the police and CRFF personnel in the area. Armed with AK-47s, tear smoke canisters, pepper gas and fibreglass batons, hundreds of security personnel were deputed in the sensitive neighbourhoods.

“We have been here since 5.30 a.m. as we had been informed that there was going to be a big protest,” said a constable outside the Maisuma lane in Lal Chowk, from where Mr. Malik was detained. “Immediately after the prayers, around a thousand people took out a protest march from Maisuma. We had to stop them from reaching the main road in Lal Chowk.”

Soon after the march was stopped, the protesters started throwing stones and the police used pepper gas and tear smoke canisters to push them back.

“We detained Yasin Malik and more than 20 people during the protests in Maisuma. Four policemen were injured in the stone pelting,” J&K police spokesperson Manoj Pandita said.

Protests were also organised in the old Srinagar area against the government’s proposal.

The protesters raised slogans supporting communal harmony and urged the Kashmiri Pandits to come back, but not in “separate Israeli-type settlements as outposts of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.”

The separatist leadership had called for protests on Friday and a complete shutdown on Saturday after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed gave his nod to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for return of Kashmiri Pandits in separate zones, which the Peoples Democratic Party is calling “composite townships.”

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No Israeli-type settlements for Kashmiri Pandits: Mufti - The Hindu

"Kashmiri Pandits are a miniscule community. It is our programme to save the diversity of Kashmir."
Reiterating his opposition to composite townships for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Friday said his government was committed to bring the displaced community back but ruled out setting up “Israeli-type” separate clusters for their settlement.

“We will not make separate clusters that Israel has set up... Neither we will make that (separate townships) nor they (Kashmiri Pandits) have desired to live in that,” Mr. Sayeed told the Legislative Council in Jammu on Friday.

“During my previous tenure in 2003, we set up camps for them in Sheikhpura, and some places in Anantnag and Kupwara. They said they cannot live separately. We will bring this community back and integrate them in the Kashmiri milieu,” he said. “Kashmiri Pandits are a miniscule community. It is our programme to save the diversity of Kashmir. Our determination is clear to bring them back to Kashmir Valley with respect and dignity,” he said.

Mr. Sayeed said a total of 7,247 Kashmiri Pandits still live in Kashmir. “Anantnag has 638 Kashmiri Pandits, Ganderbal 151, Pulwama 390 and Budgam 870. They are also not living in separate clusters,” he said.

Giving examples how Kashmiri Pandit families who did not migrate from Kashmir during the period of militancy are living scattered in Valley, Mr. Sayeed said, “I went to a village in Pahalgam where I saw two Pandit families living at one place and some others at a long distance away. They are spread at different places. They do not have any connectivity.”

“Therefore, it is our mission that if we want to save our composite culture, it will be our utmost endeavour to bring them back to Kashmir. We will have to make conducive atmosphere for it. It will not be possible by hue and cry raised over the issue but to work to strengthen the relations,” the Chief Minister added.

Ruling alliance partners PDP and BJP expressed different views on composite townships for settlement of Kashmiri Pandits with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday making it clear that the Centre was going ahead with its plan for composite townships for KPs while the Chief Minister voicing his opposition to such a proposal.

 

[Hindustani78]

VHP's Togadia warns Centre against delay in rehabilitation of Kashmir Pandits | Zee News
Last Updated: Sunday, April 12, 2015 - 22:29

Nahan: VHP leader Praveen Togadia on Sunday warned the Union government against delay in rehabilitation of Kashmir Pandits saying that people of the displaced community will be settled in the Kashmir Valley despite pressure from separatists.


Addressing a gathering at 'Virat Hindu Sammelan', organised by the outfit in Nahan, Togadia?warned the Union government that "any delay in the process of rehabilitation due to tactics of the Jammu and Kashmir government will not be tolerated."

He warned that his outfit will take out a march to Jammu and Kashmir if there was any delay in the rehabilitation.

"If this matter is delayed under pressure from any quarter, VHP will march to Jammu and Kashmir with the Hindus from 6 lakh villages of the country and the government would be responsible for any consequences," he said.

Asserting that 'ghar wapsi' (reconversion) programmes will continue across the country, Togadia said that if any government creates hurdles the VHP would launch a nationwide agitation against it.

PTI

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Not afraid of hue and cry, will take everyone along: Mufti Mohammad Sayeed - The Hindu

Asserting that he won’t be deterred by any “small hue and cry” from the mission to establish peace and normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Sunday said he will take along all “stakeholders” including in “mainstream or outside”.

Speaking in the Legislative Council, he asserted that if the country faced any challenge it was establishment of peace and normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir and BJP also realised this.

“I say if the country... if India has a challenge somewhere, it is in Jammu and Kashmir. Even the people from BJP also realise that our vision is not only to run the government, they have realised the challenge,” he said.

There has been unease in BJP over the working of Mr. Sayeed such as the decision to release hardline separatist leader Masarat Alam and BJP chief Amit Shah had even said that his party would not compromise on national interest and could end its alliance with PDP if “Kashmir issue” is not solved.

Mr. Mufti on Sunday said that soon after the formation of the PDP-BJP coalition government in the state, he made it clear that he would ensure that everyone was taken onboard.

“I want to take along all the stakeholders and by the stakeholders I mean all the people whether in the mainstream or outside it, we will take them along as well,” Mr. Mufti said.

Terming the formation of the coalition government in the state as a historic opportunity, he said that he was not afraid of “small hue and cry” being created.

“People who voted overwhelmingly, gave this opportunity to make history, I am not afraid of small hue and cry,” he said.

He said that it was the “determination and the will” of the people that counts for him. “We will follow our path and this small hue and cry won’t do any harm to our mission,” he said.

“It is a journey to provide clean government, a journey to provide accountability, transparency a journey of political will, and we have to take advantage of this and take Jammu and Kashmir out of this trouble,” Mr. Sayeed said.

Mr. Sayeed was speaking after PDP’s Haji Inayat Ali and Congress’ Jahangir Hassan Mir were unanimously elected as the chairman and deputy chairman of the legislative council. Their names were proposed by education minister Naeem Akhtar.

The Chief Minister said that sometimes his partymen get “angry” over his decision, but he continues to take along everybody.

“In the lower house we gave the position of deputy speaker to the National Conference and in this house we elected a Congress candidate for the post of deputy chairman, I strongly believe in taking everyone on-board,” he said.

“Sometimes the people from my party get angry but I continue to take along everybody. I want to take along all the stakeholders and by the stakeholders I mean all the people whether in the mainstream or outside it, we will take them along as well,” Mr. Sayeed said.

He said that be it National Conference or Congress, his aim is to take along everybody.

“I don’t aim at taking away their role of opposition from them. I recently told somebody from Delhi that we are here to provide an alternative,” he said.

Congratulating the newly elected chairman and deputy chairman of the legislative council, Mr. Sayeed said that he was hopeful that they will perform their duty well like their predecessors.