Seventy years long struggle waged by thousands of families of West Pakistan refugees to earn their citizenship rights has finally helped them earn compensation of Rs 21 per day.

Over 3 lakh West Pakistan refugees had migrated to India during the 1947 partition and a large number of them settled in the State were deprived of citizenship rights given to permanent residents of the State.

The compensation package at Rs 5.50 lakh per family was announced by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his two-day long visit to the State on Friday.

If calculated on daily basis 5764 West Pakistan Refugee families have been compensated Rs 21 per day for a period of 70 long years.

Despite receiving step motherly treatment at the hands of successive State/Centre Governments President of the West Pakistan Refugee Action Committee Labha Ram Gandhi told The Pioneer, “We welcome the announcement of the union Government but I want to make it clear we will continue to struggle for our citizenship rights till our last breath”.

Gandhi said, “More than three generations of West Pakistan refugees have sacrificed every thing to fight for their identity and after waging a 70 year long struggle we are going to receive a sum of Rs 5.50 lakh per family”.

He appealed to the Union Government to immediately appoint nodal officer to ensure speedy distribution of compensation package among the refugee families. At the same time he also raised the issue of exact number of families entitled for compensation package.

Gandhi claimed there were a total number of 19960 families but as per Government records only 5764 families were registered with them.

Initially, the state govt had registered claims of 5764 families while rest of them failed to complete the formalities and have been left out.

Sukhdev Singh,Vice President of the West Pakistan Refugees Action committee said, after announcing the compensation package the Government should fulfill our demand for grant of Permanent Resident Certificate. He said in the absence of same our children cannot apply for State Govt jobs, exercise their right to franchise in the State Assembly elections and cannot purchase land.

Bihari Lal, a resident of RS Pura said, “majority of refugee population,living in pathetic conditions,want us to continue to fight for their citizenship rights”.He said, “we are living in houses which we cannot call our own as none of us can own State land”. He said our children continue to struggle to get government jobs, they face discrimination for want of State subject. He said we have been pleading before every centre and State Govt to acknowledge our plight and treat our cases on humanitarian basis to deliver justice to us.

Courtesy: The Pioneer, Monday, 11 June 2018 | Mohit Kandhari | Jammu