NEW DELHI, Feb 9: The government has restored lands in Jammu and Kashmir to 610 Kashmiri Pandits in the last five years, the union ministry of home affairs told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Replying to a question by Mahesh Poddar (BJP), the Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said, “as per the information provided by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir the land of 610 applicants [migrants] has been restored in the last five years.” The reply stated that under the J&K Migrant Immovable Property [Preservation, Protection & Restraint on Distress Sales] Act, 1997, District Magistrates (DMs) are the legal custodians of the immovable properties of migrants. “The DMs are further empowered to take all steps for the preservation and protection of such properties,” it said.
It further added that the Government has taken several measures to rehabilitate the Kashmiri Migrants back to the Valley which includes “3000 State Government jobs created for the Kashmiri Migrants under the Prime Minister’s Development Package-2015 (PMDP-2015) at an outlay of ₹1080 crores” and the J&K Government has appointed 1739 migrants and selected additional 1098 migrants under PMDP-2015.
It said construction of 6,000 transit accommodation in Kashmir Valley at an estimated cost of ₹920 crore is also underway. J&K Government has launched a portal in September 2021 to address the grievances of Kashmiri Migrants related to immovable properties and community assets and an amount of ₹753.89 crores has been released during the last five years in this regard.
(Manas Dasgupta)