A top advisory body of the government of India has sought exhaustive details from the Jammu and Kashmir government about immoveable properties of Kashmir migrants in the Valley.
The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS)—the body which advises Prime Minister’s Office on vital matters—has asked for these details for “preparing an assessment” on Kashmir migrants.
The NSCS was created in 1998 and works as an advisory group, comprising various experts on security-related matters. It directly reports to National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval.
In a letter written on January 14, the NSCS has communicated to the J&K government that it was “preparing an assessment” on Kashmir migrants who left Valley in the nineties and settled in Jammu and other cities.
The NSCS has asked state authorities to submit area-wise details of immovable properties of Kashmir migrants sold in Kashmir Valley since 1990.
The state has also been asked to submit area-wise details of land holdings and immovable properties of Kashmir migrants at present and in 1990.
The advisory body has also sought area-wise details of immovable property of migrants currently in custody of J&K government.
The letter has been written by additional secretary NSCS SM Sahai, who happens to be a J&K cadre IPS officer and served as additional director general of police in the state before this posting.
After receiving the communiqué, the state government has written to the divisional commissioner Kashmir to furnish the requisite information to the NSCS.
The divisional commissioner Kashmir has, in turn, written to all deputy commissioners of Kashmir to submit these details.
When the insurgency began in 1989-90, thousands of Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and even some Muslims left Kashmir Valley and settled in different cities.
In 2016, the state government disclosed in the Assembly that 154,000 souls left Kashmir, besides many families living in the hilly areas of Jammu region, for “safer places”.