New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Parliament on Wednesday that the properties of 610 Kashmiri Pandit families, who had fled the valley following the outbreak of violence in the 1990s, had been restored to them.
“As per the information provided by the government of Jammu and Kashmir, the land of 610 applicants (migrants) has been restored in the last five years,” MHA said in a written statement before the Parliament.
According to the information shared by the ministry MoS, Nityanand Rai, the Jammu and Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection and Restraint on Distress Sales) Act, 1997, makes the District Magistrates (DMs) of the respective areas of Jammu and Kashmir the legal custodians of the immovable properties of the migrant families.
The government informed the Parliament that it was within the powers of the DMs to take the necessary steps for the preservation and protection of such properties. Rai told the Rajya Sabha that 6,000 transit accommodations had also been created by the Central government for Kashmiri Pandits in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The government has taken several measures to rehabilitate Kashmiri migrants back to the valley that include construction of 6,000 transit accommodations in the Kashmir Valley at an estimated cost of Rs 920 crore in order to provide accommodation to employed Kashmiri migrants,” he said.
Rai told the Parliament that as many as 3,000 state government jobs had been created by the Central government for the Pandits under the Prime Minister’s Development Package-2015 (PMDP-2015), with an outlay of Rs 1,080 crore. The MoS said that the J&K administration had also appointed 1,739 migrants and selected 1,098 migrants under the PMDP policy.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed that 3,841 Kashmiri Pandits have returned to Kashmir in the last few years and have taken up jobs there under the PM’s Rehabilitation Scheme, as they are feeling more secure after the Abrogation of Article 370.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has approved the transfer of 278 canal lands in 5 districts for the construction of over 2600 flats as transit accommodation to ensure the return of Kashmiri migrant employees.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had donated the land to the Disaster Relief Rehabilitation, and Rebuilding department in 2015 as part of an Rs. 80,000-crore development package for Jammu and Kashmir aimed at creating a modern, progressive, and prosperous region.