JAMMU, June 6
It’s been almost quarter of a century now when Kashmiri Pandits were either killed by gun-wielding militants or hounded out of their homes and hearths in Valley in 1989.

A witness to their genocide and mass exodus, the internally displaced community still toils hard to get adequate relief and rehabilitation from the successive regimes at the Centre and the state.

The then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had announced an exclusive job package for 6,000 internally displaced Pandit youth at a rally in Akhnoor in 2008 and in the past six years 1,446 Pandit youth have been given jobs in Kashmir Valley with a pre-condition that they would serve all their lives in Valley, which their community says is violation of “service rules”.

The Centre’s announcement of granting Rs 7.5 lakh to KP families to go back to the Valley and reconstruct their damaged houses didn’t find desired response because of the fear psychosis among the community and less amount of money offered.

Recently, the state government mooted another proposal to the Centre of providing Rs 20 lakh each to the KP families returning to the Valley. Such families would be given the amount to construct their houses.

Currently, the displaced KP families are getting Rs 6,600 as relief for a family of four members and above and Rs 1,650 per person in case of families having less than four members.

Besides cash relief, the state government provides them 9 kg rice per member, 2 kg of flour and 1 kg sugar per family on monthly basis.

Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Aijaz Khan in February this year had informed the state legislature that the Centre had sanctioned an economic package of Rs 1,616.40 crore for the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants to the Valley.

The package was also approved by the state government in October 2009. There are 40,857 Kashmiri migrant families registered in Jammu, of which 18,681 fall under relief category and 22,176 under non-relief because they were in government jobs.

A total of 4,898 families had applied to return to the Valley in 2009, but only one family has actually returned to date.

Of the 6,000 jobs, 3,000 posts were created in 2009 for the wards of KPs. The appointment orders were issued to 2,184 candidates, but only 1,446 joined their departments.

Built under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) at a revised cost of Rs 385 crore and inaugurated by the then PM Manmohan Singh in March 2011, the Centre came up with a satellite township at Jagti in Nagrota, 13 km from Jammu, having 4,218 two-room flats.

Before this township, the KPs had to live under inhumane conditions in tents and one-room tenements in camps in Muthi, Purkhoo, Nagrota and various other places across Jammu region where many of the old and ill KPs died of hot and sultry weather conditions.

n In 2008, jobs for 6,000 internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits were announced and only 1,446 have been placed till now

n Rs 7.5-lakh grant to KP families to go back to Valley and reconstruct their houses didn't find desired response due to fear psychosis

n Currently, the displaced KP families are getting ~6,600 cash relief for a family of four and above and ~1,650 per member in case of a family having less than four members

n A total of 4,898 families had applied to return to the Valley in 2009, but only one family has returned to date