Committed to dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits to Valley, says Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar: Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti today stressed that the government was committed to the return of Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants into the valley and that a transit accommodation would be set up for them until the situation becomes conducive for them to return to their native places. 

Rejecting the charges by opposition parties and separatists that the government was planning to set up exclusive colonies for migrant Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, the chief minister said, "We are committed to the dignified return of Kashmiri Pandits.

"For this, we are setting up transit accommodation which would be a composite facility and not an exclusive one. For this, places would be identified. Fifty percent of this accommodation would be given to Kashmiri Pandits while the rest would be provided to people belonging to other communities.

"If the political workers who have shifted from villages to Srinagar city are not ready to go back to their native places, how can you expect Kashmiri Pandits to go back to their native place at this point of time?

"Once the situation is conducive, only then can they go back to their native places," she said.

Mehbooba further told the Assembly that the construction of transit accommodation was among the recommendations made by the Prime Minister's Working Group, formed in 2005, and it will be for Muslim and Sikh migrants too.

She wondered how migrants can be asked "to return to their native places when our political workers -- be it from PDP, Congress, National Conference or any other party -- are living under security in hotels in Srinagar".

"Why don't we tell them to return to their places? Because they don't feel secure. No body raises questions why we have made a colony for them," Mehbooba said.

She said her government was committed to setting up composite transit accommodation with basic facilities.

"This is a facility for migrants. Don't we have Muslim migrants? Don't we have migrants in Jammu? Are not there Sikhs and other people among them? If we are saying 50 per cent will be Kashmiri Pandits and the rest others, you are saying it is Israel-like situation," she said.

Mehbooba said the migrants can return to their native places only when they feel secure enough. "They can go to Ganderbal, Pulwama or Baramulla after that," she said.

The Chief Minister said it cannot be expected that the people who have left the Valley 25 years ago will straight away go back to their places.

"Some of them have forgotten the way to their homes. Some don't even remember their homes. What kind of humanity is this? We all agree that migrants are part of our Kashmiriyat and they should return with dignity," she said.

She said the state needs the Kashmiri Pandit migrants to fill the void in various sectors.

"I would request them to come back. They have such IQ. We have an AIIMS coming up. I would appeal to all Kashmiris -- Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs -- who are working in different hospitals outside the state to come back," she said.

Defending the decision by the PDP to align with the BJP for the formation of government in the state, Mehbooba said, "Aligning with the BJP for government formation was not a bigger decision than the one taken by the tallest leader of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, who supported accession of the only Muslim majority state with India in 1947."

On the alleged setting up of a Sainik (Ex-servicemen) colony in the Valley, the chief minister said, "The state government has no plans to set up a Sainik colony for non-state subject ex-servicemen. The Sainik Board came into being in 1965 and in 1975 a Sainik colony was inaugurated in Jammu city by then chief minister, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.

"In the recent past, many meetings of the Sainik Board were conducted following requests that one such colony should be established in the Valley.

"But, up to this moment, no land, whatsoever, has been identified for this purpose. This issue is being exploited by some people for their own interests."

There has been growing opposition in the state to allotting land for a Sainik colony, and separatist leaders called for protests against the move earlier this week.
 

(With agencies)