First ‘composite township’ to come up in Kulgam

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, May 12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government at the Centre wants the first composite township for rehabilitation of about one thousand Kashmiri Pandit families to come up in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district within current year.

Knowledgeable sources revealed to State Times here on Tuesday that the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has discussed the plan of the displaced Pandits’ return and rehabilitation in detail with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Singh, who has been in touch with some Pandit groups and leaders, has desired Mufti to provide 400 Kanals of land for construction of at least 1,000 flats somewhere in vicinity of Vessue, in Kulgam district, where a cluster of hutments had already been constructed for the Pandits who have been absorbed in government services and posted in Kashmir valley under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special package.

After a series of discussions in New Delhi, Mufti is understood to have received Singh’s call last week as the Home Minister wanted him to hasten the process of land acquisition for the first township in Kulgam district. Necessary instructions for identification of the site and land procurement have been communicated to the district Revenue authorities. A high level team from North Block, which has arrived in the summer capital today, is expected to conduct an inspection of the proposed site for security assessment in company of senior Police and Civil administration officials of the State government.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister is likely to visit Kulgam district alongwith a group of select Ministers, bureaucrats, Heads of Departments and senior Police and security officials. The team would carry out inspection of two proposed sites in Kulgam-Qazigund belt in the foothills of Pir Panjal mountain range. The process of land acquisition could start within a month.

Sources disclosed that Government of India was planning to create at least 10 of such townships for rehabilitation of the Pandits who were interested to return to the Valley but had serious security apprehension in living in their ancestral villages. “All the stakeholders, including the Pandit leaders and intellectuals would be involved with the rehabilitation process as soon as possible. Those keen to live in their own villages would be provided suitable land and an amount of Rs 20 lakh each family in instalments”, said a senior political source. According to him, government would also take on board MLA Devsar Mohammad Amin Bhat, MLA Noorabad and Minister of State Abdul Majid Paddar and MLA Kulgam Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami.

In the wake of strong resistance to the idea of creating “protected and isolated settlements and ghettos” from almost all the Valley’s separatist and mainstream opposition groups, the BJP-PDP coalition is toying with the idea of offering 25% of the flats to the Muslims interested in living in the neighbourhood of Pandits. Because of this, the settlements have been named as “composite townships”.

Sources said that the government would also allot houses on the pattern of the displaced Pandits to members of the Muslim and Sikh communities who had migrated to Jammu, Delhi and other places because of armed insurgency and who were interested in returning to the Valley.

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