J&K govt identifies 100 acres for Kashmiri Pandits

New Delhi: The J&K government has identified 100 acres of land at eight locations in the Valley for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits who had to migrate from the state following the start of militancy in the early 1990s. The Union home ministry, which is working closely with the state government on a rehabilitation policy, claimed that these pockets would be spread over 10 different districts of the Valley.

Nearly 62,000 Kashmiri migrant families are registered with the government. Of them, 40,000 are said to be in Jammu, 20,000 in Delhi, while about 2,000 are in other parts of the country. The Centre has already allocated Rs 500 crore for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.

Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits has been one of the priority areas since the NDA came to power in 2014, and Union home minister Rajnath Singh had even written to then chief minister Omar Abdullah asking him to identify land for these colonies.

The home ministry had suggested to the state government that land should be identified near the native places keeping in view security aspects. The state government had however cited the model code of conduct for elections, which was in force at that time, as the reason for not initiating the process immediately, and even pointed out that such colonies could become easy target for militants.

The Centre has also directed the state government to fill vacancies earmarked for Kashmiri Pandits. Sources said that out of 6,000 jobs, 1,700 had already been filled, and the selection process for the remaining 4,300 was being completed.