Pandits demand ‘white paper’ on incomplete housing projects

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 21

Kashmiri Hindus, who returned to the Valley under the Prime Minister Rehabilitation Plan in 2010, have demanded a ‘white paper’ for the delay in the completion of housing projects for more than 3,000 Pandit families under the resettlement package.

They have alleged that some bureaucrats were deliberately making efforts to derail the resettlement plan announced in 2008 by then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Recently, PM package employees had also protested in Srinagar seeking Governor Satya Pal Malik’s intervention in fixing the responsibility on officials of the J&K Projects Construction Corporation for the slow pace of work and the failure of the respective district administrations in the Valley for not identifying land.

“Almost a decade has passed since the displaced Pandits volunteered to return to their homeland but they have been pushed to live in slums. The government needs to issue a white paper for the reasons of the delay as a majority of the package employees are living in miserable conditions,” said Vinod Pandit, chairman, All Party Migrant Coordination Committee.

Around nine years have passed since the Centrally-sponsored rehabilitation and resettlement package was implemented. Under its employment component, more than 3,000 displaced Pandit youth have been recruited in different government departments. However, a majority of them are living in pre-fabricated transit camps while the construction of concrete housing units is going on at a snail’s pace.

“Employees putting up in rented accommodation are the worst sufferers as they have been paying huge rent. We cannot go to our native villages as a majority of the houses have been damaged,” said Sunil Raina, who works in the education department.

The delay in the construction of quarters at the Vessu camp by the JKPCC needs a thorough probe. At Hawal (Pulwama) and Mattan (Anantnag), the administration has failed to identify the land for rehabiliation.

A majority of Hindus who returned to the Valley are living in makeshift pre-fabricated camps at Mattan (Anantnag), Natnussa (Kupwara), Hawal (Pulwama), Veerwan (Baramulla), Vessu (Kulgam) and Ganderbal and Sheikhpura (Srinagar).

Despite repeated claims of speeding up the construction of housing units by the NC-Congress (2009-2014) and PDP-BJP governments (2015-2018) there has been slow progress in the finalisation of the land and start of the construction.