Legal Services Authority to assist Kishtwar fire victims
Amit Kumar Gupta, Member Secretary, J&K Legal Services Authority, today held a virtual meeting with the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Kishtwar, in connection with the recent fire incident at Mulwarwan village in Warwan tehsil of Kishtwar. It was attended by Slahuddin Ahmed, Secretary, DLSA Kishtwar, panel lawyers and others.
The meting was held on the directions of Justice Atul Sreedharan, Judge, High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh and Executive Chairman, J&K Legal Services Authority.
“The prime objective behind this significant and timely initiative is to ensure that the DLSA performs its obligation in rehabilitation of victims of fire incident by ensuring protection of their legal rights,” maintained Gupta. He said the victims of such incidents often face various legal issues because of loss of documents such as identity cards, health cards, property title deeds and other documents which lead to property disputes, non-release of timely compensation, etc.
“Our endeavour should be to assist the victims in retrieval or re-issuance of such documents by liaising with government departments and agencies,” he added.
Gupta asked Manjeet Singh Manhas, Chairman, DLSA (Principal District & Sessions Judge) Kishtwar, for constitution of a special team which shall visit the place of incident and assist the victims and their families in the rehabilitation process. He also asked for organising awareness programmes to inform the victims about their legal entitlements under various laws, compensation schemes and other statutory provisions that can aid in their rehabilitation. A legal aid helpdesk will also be set up at the place of incident.
Gupta emphasised that the intervention of Legal Services Authorities should be for coordinating the integrated, strategic and sustainable development measures taken by the government for rehabilitation purposes. The thrust of the efforts shall be for helping the victims of the fire incident and to coordinate with the government departments and non-governmental organisations for providing quick aid to the victims, he added.
DLSA Secretary briefed the Member Secretary about the steps already taken to provide legal aid services to the victims of the devastating fire. He assured that the initiative taken by the J&K Legal Services Authority shall be properly implemented in order to safeguard the rights of fire-affected families.
