| News Details |
| Mir, Bhalla, others visit Migrants camp Vesu, Mattan & other KP Migrants areas | | Congress sensitive to problems and sufferings of Kashmiri Migrants: Mir/Bhalla | 
Srinagar: May 22 (Scoop News)-JKPCC President GA Mir along with JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla, Raman Matoo, Gulzar Ahmed Wani, Vijay Sharma, Jatin Vashisht,Farooq Bhat District President Kulgam Sunday visited Migrants camp Vesu, Mattan to meet agitating Kashmiri Migrants PM Package employees and others and extended party’s support to the various demands of the community. However Congress leaders denied permission to visit Sheikhpora to meet deceased Rahul Bhat’s family and his relatives. Reacting over this Mir said ,"Someone has died, how can it be a law and order issue? asked Mir . Is it a crime to empathize with family members of Rahul Bhat . Is it too much that we cannot go out to meet aggrieved people and should remain confined in our houses when people are suffering on all counts.
Speaking on the occasion, Mir said that "Congress president Sonia Gandhi always remains sensitive to the problems and sufferings of Kashmiri migrants. We have full sympathy with them and previous UPA government under Manmohan Singh tried its best to help the community," he said during his interaction with the community leaders.The Congress leader said the community's desire to return with safety and security was a right demand and all have to work together to see their genuine rights fulfilled."Till then every sort of necessary help needs to be extended to them," he said.Mir assured the community that Congress will take up their demands on every concerned platform. He expressed shock over loss of lives of migrants who have been targeted time and again. He regretted that the BJP led NDA Govt has miserably failed to check the Pak designs and to ensure security and safety of people of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that certain measures are essential to ensure safety and security of minority’s people.
Mir assured the people residing in the camps that they will submit their report to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Ex President Congress Rahul Gandhi for taking up the matter both inside and outside the Parliament at the national level.Mir also discussed facilities provided in camps and monetary help to meet their day today needs.He claimed that the then UPA government had provided them with financial support, relief packages and jobs but thereafter nothing major has been done in their interest.He said Congress has always been sensitive to the problems and sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits. Congress party understands the pain of being away from one’s home. We have full sympathies with the Kashmiri Pandits and the then UPA government under Manmohan Singh tried to do the best possible to help them,” he said. The BJP government has made several promises to the community over the years since coming to power and the abrogation of Article 370 was claimed by them as a big in the community in facilitating their return to the valley. However, despite more than two years since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 2019, thousands of migrant Kashmiri pandits remain in camps and ghetto colonies in Jammu and Delhi.
Mir claimed that since the release of the movie, The Kashmir Files has been actively promoted by the BJP. Several BJP-ruled states have announced that the movie will be tax-free in their respective states. “Imagine, those Kashmiri Muslims who are Indian by heart, how they must have felt about of their affiliation with India in the past 70 years upon being shown like this,” he lamented. He said painting all Muslims with the same brush only negates the whole purpose of creating awareness through a film about the pain of Pandits. You’ve made the film, promoted it, now the BJP should do some real work.” he adds, “We don’t need more hate, Kashmir is a sensitive place, playing Hindu-Muslim there will only create more harm.”On April 1, Congress member in the Rajya Sabha Vivek Tankha introduced a private member’s bill in the House – ‘Kashmiri Pandits (Recourse, Restitution, Rehabilitation and Resettlement) Act, 2022’ – seeking to provide for social, political and economic rehabilitation of Pandits, protection of their property, restoration of their cultural heritage, ensuring their safety and security, and provision of rehabilitation and resettlement package to them.The BJP government has ruled J&K directly for four years now, ever since the BJP withdrew its support from the People’s Democratic Party-BJP alliance in 2018 and successively ended the constitutional guarantees of the region in August 2019. But the return and resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits to their homeland remains mishandled, added Mir.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said BJP is completing eight years in power this year. While their manifesto has always spoken of the situation of the Pandits, those who actually live in ghettos in the shape of transit camps feel that there is no value to their lives for the BJP.He said BJP has done nothing to improve the condition of the community in the eight years that it had. For months they have been protesting to increase the relief amount from Rs 13,000 per family to Rs 25,000 per family, is this not in the BJP’s control?”He said their existence in camps even after they voted for the BJP explains how little the party cares about on-ground impact. They feel that while they were promised return and resettlement, in effect they see no change, but only a spike in attacks on community members. He said the return policies which are still in the nascent stages should not push Pandits to ghettoisation; rather they should aim at coexistence with Kashmiri Muslims.He said only 17% of the proposed accommodation for Kashmiri Pandits has been completed in the past seven years. Till February this year, construction of only 1,025 units had been partially or fully completed, while work at more than 50% units was yet to start.
Bhalla said that the protesting Pandits were deeply agitated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s inaction concerning the killing. There is lack of efforts by the union territory (UT) administration as well as the Union government to resettle migrant Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley.The government says there is no militancy, but in the last one year, the graph has gone up. Dignitaries, delegates are being brought in, they’re shown the Dal Lake, tourists will also give you the same ‘normalcy narrative’ during their 10 days’ stay. But the situation is not better, as is being portrayed by certain media, and of course there is a massive political vacuum.” Arguing that the Government of India has achieved nothing after its blunders in J&K, Bhalla said that militancy hasn’t been wiped out of the Valley, and the separatist mindset is now more prevalent among self-radicalised youth since August 2019. The GOI is not in a concrete position to facilitate the return of Pandits. If everything is normal, they should begin talking to the those Pandits who lead miserable lives,” he remarked. Talking about how Pandits, over last eight years have been made passive consumers of relief, Bhalla said that Pandits have been pushed towards documentation, availing relief packages and not towards return and resettlement into the valley.
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