| News Details |
| SOS Int’l submits detailed Memo to Panel on Demographic Changes | | strongly demands to bring back PoJK families living in exile outside J&K | 
Jammu, August 11 (Scoop News)-: A high-level delegation of SOS International – An Organisation for PoJK Displaced Persons, led by its Chairman Rajiv Chuni, today submitted a detailed memorandum to the Panel on Demographic Changes headed by Hon’ble Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar (Retd.) at Jammu. The delegation comprised Prof. N.N. Sharma (Vice Chairman), Shri Vinod Kumar Datta (General Secretary), Bhai Ram Singh (Secretary) and Shri Ved Raj Bali (Secretary).
The memorandum places on record the historic injustice inflicted upon the Hindu and Sikh population of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) since 1947 and demands concrete corrective measures from the Panel.
The memorandum pointed out that while approximately 31,600 families were initially registered by the then Government of Jammu and Kashmir after the 1947 invasion, nearly 9,500 families were arbitrarily denied registration on flimsy grounds. Of the registered families, only about 26,300 were settled within the State. Roughly 5,300 registered families, along with the 9,500 non-registered families, were compelled to seek refuge in other parts of India. The registration records of those formally registered continue to exist in the official archives of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.
These families, original State Subjects under the 1927 State Subject Law of Maharaja Hari Singh, have repeatedly expressed their desire to return to their homeland. However, the complete absence of any rehabilitation policy or institutional support left them with no option but to rebuild their lives elsewhere. Their present population living outside the State is estimated at five to six lakh.
SOS International strongly underlined that the 2014 Cabinet decision of the then Jammu and Kashmir Government — promising ₹25 lakh as cash assistance to every affected family, 8,500 government jobs for educated unemployed youth, and reservation in professional and technical institutions — has not been implemented for families living in exile in J&K and outside the State. Neither cash assistance, nor employment, nor educational reservation has been extended to them.
The organization reminded the Panel that a historic opportunity to include these original inhabitants was missed during the reorganization of the State in 2019. It urged the Panel to recommend that eight of the twenty-four Assembly seats reserved for the PoJK territories be filled through nomination of representatives from the displaced community until those areas are liberated. Such representation, the memorandum stressed, would also give a long-denied voice to the large section of the community still living outside the State.
“These are our own kith and kin. They continue to yearn for return, yet successive governments have made no meaningful effort to enable it,” the memorandum stated. “Justice and equity demand that the descendants of Maharaja Hari Singh’s State Subjects living outside the State receive the same consideration and packages that were extended to the Kashmiri Migrants.”
SOS International expressed the hope that the legitimate concerns of the PoJK families living in exile will find due reflection in the final report of the Panel on Demographic Changes.
The organization thanked the Hon’ble Chairman and Members of the Panel for granting the opportunity and listening to the community’s long-pending issues with patience and attention.
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