Displaced from Jhelum banks a decade ago, families demand rehabilitation

Scores of families displaced from the banks of Jhelum between DC office and Fateh Kadal a decade ago staged a protest here on Tuesday, demanding rehabilitation.

They say the government was ignoring them despite its ownorders for their rehabilitation even as all the formalities were alsocompleted.

   

The displaced families including men, women and childrenassembled at the Press Enclave here under the banner of Jhelum River HouseRehabilitation Union to press for their demand.

“The process (of rehabilitation) was initiated in 2008 withthe selection of 120 families who were to be shifted from the either side ofJhelum River. In 2012 our sheds were demolished and 120 families were givenorder slips for rehabilitation,” said Bilal Ahmed Rah, vice president of theunion. 

“Since then we are living in rented accommodations andawaiting compensation.”

The displaced families say land for their rehabilitation wasalso identified and allotted on papers to them years ago.

“Despite getting all the formalities done from variousconcerned departments, we fail to understand why we aren’t beingrehabilitated,” Rah said.

The displaced families say that they are suffering and areready to settle at whatever place government asks them to but they wantrehabilitation as soon as possible.

“We come from poor families and cannot afford to pay rent inthousands for one room. We are unable to get our daughters married because wedon’t have anywhere to live permanently,” said Haseena, a displaced protestor.

“We cannot make our ends meet and in the process we havebecome like nomads while our children had to abandon their studies,” she said.

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