SRINAGAR, May 25: The State government has acceded
to the demand made by Kashmiri Pandits in Valley for housing them in
clusters. As per the state government the clusters are to be set up at
district headquarters. Hindu Welfare Society, a Kashmir-based organisation
put off the hunger strike, which was to begin today. The government has
asked Pandit leaders to provide a list of members, who intend to move into
these clusters. No further details were available.
In a significant move the Central government has
agreed to consider issuing of special identity cards to the displaced
members of the community, who left the Valley after 1990 and were not
registered as migrants. The move is expected to benefit at least 50,000
displaced persons. The Union Home Ministry has, however, refused to
re-open the registration of Pandit migrants in Delhi. "If the
bonafides of the Kashmiri migrants are proved, they could be considered
for registration in Jammu and the Government of Delhi could accordingly be
intimated for the issue of identity cards," the ministry said in a
communique to the Kashmiri Samiti, Delhi. Its President, Sunil Shakhder
was asked to intimate certain details in respect of each of the families
to the Home Ministry for verification through J&K government.
Mr Shakhder termed it as a landmark step towards
establishing the identity of the displaced people. He said this was
urgently needed as the future identification of a large chunk of Pandits
is dependent on it. He added that if the revenue records in the Valley
were somehow destroyed, Pandits would lose their claim of belonging to
Kashmir.
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