Registration of Pandits willing to return begins in J-K

J-K relief commissioner Vinod Koul said: “This is the first-ever official exercise in which migrants are being registered with the relief department to facilitate their return.”

The form of expression of interest even asks migrants to specify whether the entire family intends to return to Kashmir or only a few family members want to go back.

A Kashmiri Pandit migrant of the Muthi migrant camp, S N Dhar, who took the form, said: “We are ready to return. But the Government must settle us in security zones and compensate us for our property that was damaged in the turmoil.”

In April, the PM announced that each family would be provided Rs 7.5 lakh for construction of new houses and even the Government would provide land through co-operative societies to the migrants for construction of houses. However, Dhar said that the amount was paltry. “The Government should compensate us even for the agricultural land, which we have left unattended in the Valley,” he said.

However, Kashmiri Pandits are divided over their return. President of Panun Kashmir Movement, a frontal organisation of Kashmiri Pandits, Ashwani Chrungoo, said: “We reject the entire process which has been set in motion for the return of Kashmiri Pandits back to the Valley. In fact, there can be no return until a homeland is carved out in Kashmir where Pandits are settled and we have our Government there.”

General secretary of the Congress migrant cell H L Pandita said that conditions are conducive for the return of Kashmiri Pandits back to the Valley.

In the consent forms issued by the J-K relief department, the migrants have been offered an option of living in the two-room accommodation that have been constructed for them in the Valley.

“We have constructed two-room sets at Mattan, Kherbhawani and Shiekhpura in Kashmir. The migrants can return and stay here. The registrations will be completed well before the code of conduct is in place for the elections in the state,” said Koul.

Also, consent forms from the office of the resident commissioner of Delhi are being issued to ascertain the interest of migrants outside the state.