Ahead of the first anniversary of the abrogation of special status, the Jammu and Kashmir government has cleared the process to establish special colonies for the migrant Kashmiri Pandit (KP) employees in restive south Kashmir district Shopian.
A J&K government order No 42-JK (Rev) of 2020, issued by Principal Secretary to Revenue Department, reads: “Sanction is hereby accorded to the transfer of land measuring 40 kanals (five acres), consisting of State land …. in favour of Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction for construction of transit accommodation for Kashmiri Migrant employees under PM Package.”
The order was passed in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic on 24 April 2020. The proposed colony is to be established in village Deegam of Shopian, 55 kms from here, for the migrant Pandit employees.
More than 255 Kashmiri Pandits have joined government service in Jammu and Kashmir since a special package was announced for the displaced community by the Centre in November 2015. Under the package, involving an estimated expenditure of Rs 2,000 Crore additional 3,000 government jobs and construction of transit accommodations in Kashmir for the Kashmiri migrants have to be provided.
Under a similar package in 2008, 1,474 government jobs were provided to the migrant Pandits. As per the official figures, there are 64827 registered migrant families comprising 60489 Hindu families, 2,609 Muslim families and 1,729 Sikh families.
Providing jobs to displaced people from Valley is being done under a two pronged strategy by the government. Besides providing a livelihood to displaced families, the government wants to provide the chance to displaced families to link back to their roots.
A few lakh Pandits left their ancestral homes in 1990 and migrated to Jammu and other parts of the country when a bloody insurgency broke out in Kashmir in 1990.