Union Home Minister Amit Shah and his team of senior officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) are formulating an “effective policy” for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. Highly-placed sources in the Home Ministry said that Amit Shah had chaired several meetings with the key officials of MHA’s Kashmir division in this connection, during the past one month.
Besides, tackling external and home- grown militancy with apro-active strategy in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah intends to rehabilitate KashmiriPandits, numbering around three lakh who left the Kashmir in 1990.
Sources said the Centre is contemplating to build securedresidential areas for Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. The plan would be moreimpressive than the one earlier proposed by the Jammu and Kashmir government in2015. Apart from the resettlement plan, the Home Minister is also focusing onwelfare schemes, specially meant for widows, militancy victims, handicapped andsenior citizens residing in the state.
On Friday, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik hadhinted that the government was in the process of devising an important policyfor rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. The Governor was hopefulthat if all went well, the policy would be announced soon.
Sources said that after the conclusion of AmarnathYatra,next month, the government might come out with its policy, marking a paradigmshift in rehabilitation plan for Kashmiri Pandits, awaiting a concrete policyfor their resettlement since past three decades.
Earlier, in a reply to a question in the LokSabha on July 16last, Minister of State for Home Affairs, G. Kishan Reddy had said that thePrime Minister had approved construction of 6,000 transit accommodation forKashmiri migrants in the Valley at a cost Rs 920 crore. The Centre is alsogiving monthly relief of Rs 13,000 per month to each Kashmiri migrant family.
Sources said that the MHA had also suggested to the Governor and his Advisors that they widen the scope of anti corruption enquiries in the state. Home Minister Amit Shah is of the view that a lobby of corrupt officials, backed by certain politicians, had been siphoning off funds related to welfare and development projects. The black sheep among the bureaucracy and lower rung officers in the administration have been identified and the newly formed anti-corruption agency has been asked to take action against them. Sources said that the Home Minister has also instructed the police and civil officials that separatist leaders and their supporters should be dealt with an iron hand. IANS