Ravi S Singh

An organisation working for the return and rehabilitation of displaced Say Rs 2,340 cr bungled as monetary benefit in 30 yrs.  Kashmiri Pandits on Monday alleged that activists of the National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and the Congress continued to get monthly monetary benefits from the government exchequer from the share meant for the Pandits.

‘Easy money’

The political workers and leaders of the NC, PDP and the Congress are getting money while living in their homes in Kashmir and claiming to be persecuted like the forcibly displaced Kashmiri Pandits — Satish Mahaldar, chairman, reconciliation, return and rehabilitation of kashmiri migrants

It has sought a CBI probe into the incongruity, which it said was being perpetuated since 1990, when violence erupted against Pandits, leading to their exodus.

The organisation — Reconciliation, Return and Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Migrants — has questioned the BJP-led dispensation at the Centre on the perpetuation of the anomaly even though it has been in the saddle for the past six years.

The organisation said an RTI reply from the government in 2013 had revealed that 4,800 political leaders and workers of the three political parties were registered with the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Office, Jammu. The office annually disburses about Rs 78 crore to the political activists under the head of “political worker”. Basing its claims on a 26-page official document in its possession, the organisation said each of the political activists and leaders registered as “political workers”

was given about Rs 13,000 per month.

The Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Office is the authority where displaced and persecuted Kashmiri Pandits register themselves for relief.

Chairman of the Reconciliation, Return and Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Migrants Satish Mahaldar said, “We had brought the matter to the notice of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2013 after it was first revealed in a government’s response to an RTI inquiry and also the erstwhile state government, but no action was taken.”   “Now, the field inquiry by us reveals that the names of the beneficiaries continue to be on the rolls,” Mahaldar said, adding that the cumulative amount given to the political workers in the past 30 years was Rs 2,340 crore.

In the Budgets and papers, the government shows that it is doing a lot and spending money for the relief and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits, but the ground reality is different, he said.

“The community has been again cheated and this has been going on for the past 30 years,” Mahaldar said.

Courtesy: Daily Tribune:  19th May, 2020