Jammu, Sept 18: Around 25% Kashmiri Pandit (KPs) migrants today exercised their voting rights in the 19 polling stations set up for the first phase of Assembly elections in J&K with a hope of rehabilitation and homeland in Kashmir.
Displaced KPs exercised their right to vote in 16 constituencies across south Kashmir’s Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts in the first phase.
Prem Nath Bhatt, a 70 year old retired RDD employee said that KPs want to return to their homeland. After casting his vote at Govt Woman College Gandhi Nagar, Bhatt said, “We have been waiting for the promises made by successive governments since 1994 that KPs would be sent back to their homeland but now we have some hope that BJP has promised that displaced KPs would be rehabilitated under Tika Lal Taploo scheme”.
Another KP migrant voter, Pushkar Nath Handdo, said that they have very little hope from the government as successive governments have been promising rehabilitation and return of KPs but nothing has been done in the last 30 years.
Kamla Koul, who turned out to vote at Gandhi Nagar, said that KP migrants are now hoping that they would be rehabilitated as has been promised by BJP under Tika Lal Tapllo Rehabilitation Scheme.
