Kashmiri Pandits welcome change in domicile rules in J-K

Ravi S Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 21

Happy with the new domicile rules in Jammu and Kashmir, members of displaced Kashmir Pandit community and other migrants here are now seeking their safe return to the Valley.

The voices from Pandit community condemned the political parties who are opposing the new domicile rules, saying it manifest their devious practices.

"The priority of the Central Government now should be to fulfill the pending promise towards the return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits to Kashmir," said Satish Mahaldar, chairman of the Reconciliation, Return and Rehabilitation of Migrants.

Demands have also picked steam for granting minority status to Pandits and Sikhs, denied to them by successive dispensations in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Being a minority in Kashmir, we want 30 per cent seats quota to be reserved for Kashmiri Pandit and Sikh migrants in all professional colleges of J&K," said a migrant leader.

Also, the migrants want reservation of 10 seats for Pandits, Sikhs and others in the new Assembly.

The leaders hailed the new domicile rules as "progressive" and "humane" which will go the distance in addressing concerns of the persecuted community. 

"It ends the discrimination towards women, and Scheduled Castes, and sets in a fair agenda for the upcoming generation of the Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs, etc born post 1990, who were struggling to obtain domicile certificates due to hostility of vested elements in the valley," said the migrant leader.