Agencies
New Delhi, Dec 5 As part of the process to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits, government is building apartments where the displaced people will be given 50 per cent of flats while the remaining would be offered to people from other communities. This was stated by ruling PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti during her interaction at the function here in reply to a question by a Kashmiri pandit who wanted to spend his retired life in the valley. Mehbooba, daughter of Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed, said the PDP-BJP coalition government is serious about ensuring return of the displaced people even as she asked the Kashmiri Pandits to visit the valley and see the change themselves. "As far as the apartments are concerned, we are building 50 per cent for Kashmiri Pandits and remaining 50 per cent for privatisation for everybody. So we want everybody to live together," she said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the state last month, had announced a package of Rs 80,080 crore for the state which included Rs 2000 crore for building flats for migrants in the Valley. "When my father became the Chief Minister in 2002, he started identifying the places like Sheikhpora, Mattan and many other places and then not much was done about it," Mehbooba said. "But again since he has been back, he is the one who has visited these places where the Kashmir pandits live. He has seen their difficulties. So we are very serious about it," she said, adding the Kashmiri Pandits have to be involved in this at least by starting to visit the Valley. There are 62,000 Kashmiri pandit families who had to settle down outside the Valley after militancy started in the Kashmir Valley in early 1990's. |
