Srinagar/Jammu, June 14 (KIP): Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, has proved
wiser than the wise separatists. Reports say that Mehbooba is
determined to provided space where transit camps could be set up for
those of the displaced people who wish to accept the Government's
rehabilitation plan.
Separatists continue to oppose setting up separate colonies
and clusters for Kashmiri Pandits and some of these separatists have
suggested to the Government to pay each family of displaced people
Rs.30 lakhs instead of Rs.20 lakhs so that they could buy land and
construct houses in the villages they had left.
However, some Pandit leaders have stated that it was not
possible in view of the surging prices of land and construction
material that a family could buy land and then build a house. In the
light of threats from militants still some Pandit families, keen to
return to Kashmir and settle in colonies or whatever name is given to
these transit camps.
Other Pandit leaders said that majority of Pandits had, at the
time of exodus and even after their exodus sold their land and houses
and houses of others have been either forcibly encroached
upon or torched. This way, separatists should not oppose their stay in
transit camps being built by the Government because the majority of
displaced families have lost their houses and land. As such Pandits
cannot accept the suggestion from separatists.
Panun Kashmir leaders, including Kul deep Raina, have always
favoured carving out a homeland for all nationalist forces within the
valley. But the suggestion of Panun Kashmir is not acceptable either
to the state Government or to the central Government nor to the
Kashmir Centric mainstream political parties nor to the separatists.
Some senior Pandit leaders support Mehbooba's plea for
allowing Pandits to live in transit camps so that it improves their
confidence on living in Kashmir which they had left 26 years and some
were not born in Kashmir nd hence have no knowledge about the valley,
its cultural ethos and political diversity.(KIP)