Jammu, Feb 18: Apni Party Provincial President, Jammu and former minister, S Manjit Singh on Sunday demanded proprietary rights for the Displaced Persons, and local allottees in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.
As per the press release, Manjit chaired a meeting of the Displaced Persons (DPs) at Vijaypur and reviewed the issues of the pending package, and proprietary rights to them.
During the threadbare discussion, he was informed about the delayed process of distribution of packages amounting to Rs 25 lakhs to each family of DPs /Refugees that was sanctioned by the then Govt of India. However, only Rs 5. 5 lakhs were released in their favour whereas the rest of the package amount was not released.
“The DPs/Refugees faced migration in 1965 and 1971 after they were forced to abandon their fertile agricultural land. Hence, they were settled by the then government in border areas of Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts, and parts of Pirpanjal,” he added.
Singh said that these people lived life in huge economic distress, and poverty in the absence of any support from the government. Keeping in view their financial condition and to support sustainable survival, he said that the then Government of India had sanctioned Rs 25 lakhs per family to the DPs/Refugees. However, the release of the package amount was delayed first, and then the Govt only released Rs 5.5 lakhs to the DPs/Refugee families, he said.
However, the rest of the amount has not been released to date, he said, while asking the government to look into the demands of the DPs/Refugees in a humanitarian manner so that they can be helped to uplift their living standard.
The Apni Party leader also condemned the casual approach of the authorities towards the suffering of the DPs/Refugees and demanded that their demands should be accepted. He also referred to the property rights of the DPs/Refugees and local allottees on Custodian Land in the Jammu division. “These families of DPs/Refugees and local allottees have been living in the Custodian Land/Property for decades and constructed their houses, yet the government has not given them property rights,” he said.
Referring to the political reservation, he said that the government should enhance their assembly seats by up to eight seats for the DPs in the legislative assembly. Singh said that in the wake of aspiration, the government should enhance the reservation for DPs/Refugees up to eight seats in the legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.
