Cabinet approves Rs 5.5 lakh package for PoK families who initially settled outside J&K

Union minister Prakash Javadekar

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a one-time payment of Rs 5.5 lakh as a resettlement package for the 5,300 displaced families who had come from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and initially settled outside Jammu and Kashmir but later relocated to the state.

A “historical wrong” has been corrected by the government, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said while briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
In 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the resettlement package for those PoK families who had settled in Jammu and Kashmir after partition on separate occasions.

The families which had come from PoK but had settled outside Jammu and Kashmir were left out of the package, Javadekar said. These families had later resettled in Jammu and Kashmir.

Now 5,300 such families have been included in the resettlement package, he said.