Leader of West Pak refugees in J-K poll fray

Gandhi,who has filed his nomination papers as the candidate of unrecognised Kranti Dal – a conglomerate of several parties of refugees for Jammu-Poonch parliamentary seat,said “we have lost faith in all political parties. They take votes for us on false promises and then forget our plight”.

“I will take the issue to parliament and people of the country by registering victory in Lok Sabha election on Jammu seat,” Gandhi said during his campaigning in border town of R S Pura.

Having fled the holocaust of partition,refugees from West Pakistan,who are settled along border belt of Hiranagar,R S Pura,Vijaypur border regions of Kathua,Jammu and Samba districts,are yet to get rights to vote in assembly polls,admission in schools and colleges as they are not considered to be citizens of Jammu and Kashmir.

Gandhi,who has been spearheading refugees’ agitation for grant of state subject rights for past five years,is confident of the support of over 4 lakh refugees in Jammu Lok Sabha seat.

Terming his community as unwanted,Gandhi said “We have no government jobs and we have the highest unemployment rate among refugees”.

Gandhi is in the fray along with 21 other candidates,whose fate would be decided on April 16.

Advocate H L Kalgotra,who has been fighting for their cases,said article 370 which provides special status to this Muslim majority state,prevents these refugees from getting citizenship rights – right to own land,education,employment and vote in the state.

Between 1954 and 1957 the state government passed several stringent laws debarring these refugees from getting citizenship in the future,he said.

According to official statistics,as many as 1,55,308 west Pakistani refugees are living in several hamlets along the Indo-Pak border. Of them,95 per cent are scheduled castes,while rest are Rajputs and Brahmins.