A pandit colony in Pulwama.
A pandit colony in Pulwama.

Rehabilitation of our Kashmiri Pandit brothers and sisters and bringing them back to the social mosaic of Kashmir continues to be of prime importance for the coalition government. That would be like a dream fulfilled for all of us. The package of 15000 jobs in the State and private sector has been approved for them.

Our Kashmiri pandit brothers and sisters and their family members who have been leading the life as migrants in various parts of Jammu Division have been facing many hardships even though the government has taken various initiatives to ameliorate their conditions from time to time. One of such hardship is the medical care needed in critical illness cases.

The registered migrants whose family heads are in State Government employment, are eligible to benefits under the medical scheme applicable to the state government employees. Those not falling in this category have been hard pressed for want of any comprehensive, regular and satisfactory mechanism.

For such category of registered migrants, who are in receipt of cash relief, I announce 50% grant from the government subject to a ceiling of Rs.5000 per family, for meeting cost of premium for a year, if they enlist themselves under the mediclaim policy of any recognized Insurer. The exact requirement for such financial assistance shall be assessed in due course of time. To start with, I announce a budgetary allocation of Rs.10 crore for this purpose.

A budgetary allocation of Rs. 130 crore for construction/completion of 5242 tenements for Kashmiri migrants under the Prime Ministers Reconstruction Plan has been proposed so that the difficulties faced by the families of our brothers in distress are mitigated at the earliest possible. A sum of Rs. 3 crore is being additionally allocated to complete the road to village Jagti near Nagrota where new tenements are under constructions.

Rehabilitation of Victims of Militancy

The militancy of last two decades has deprived a large number of families of their bread earners. Rehabilitation of widows and orphans is a big challenge. The government has provided 825 jobs during the last 6 months to a member of the effected family wherever feasible. To take care of the cases where cash relief of Rs. 4 lakh in lieu of a job has been preferred, about Rs.50 crore have been spent so far to rehabilitate 1233 families.

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