Akshay Azad
Early Times Report
Jammu, July 8: The refugees of Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) of 1947 along with refugees of 1965, 71 will get only Rs. 5.5 Lakh rupees as full and final one time settlement, against the proposal of Rs. 30 Lakh sent by state government to Union government.
Sources informed Early Times that out Rs. 2000 Crore was earmarked for giving relief to refugees out of Rs. 80,000 Crores Prime Minister Development Package (PMDP) announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to state. "Out of the money earmarked by Union government, it had asked the state government to send the list of refugees except West Pakistani Refugees", sources said, adding that the Revenue department of state had furnished a list of 36,000 families apart from WPR, which was then forwarded to Union government.
Sources further said that the Union government had in principle agreed to provide one time relief of Rs. 5 Lakh to each 36,000 refugee families. "The state government is still awaiting the approval of Union government but before Eid, Finance Minister of state had announced relief of Rs. 5.5 lakh to each refugee family", sources said. Sources said informed that apart from cash compensation suggested by state government in the proposal sent to Union, for meeting the other demands regarding reservation to wards of refugees in the professional courses beside others, the Union government has also asked the state government to make a scheme/performa of refugee families, according to which other benefits would be given to the refugee families.
The official of Revenue department informed that the amount of Rs. 5.5 Lakh per family would be full and final settlement package for the refugees, and there were very slim possibilities, that any other installment of compensation would be paid to refugees or Rs. 30 Lakh per family.
The Union government has also reportedly put on hold any type of compensation or relief package for West Pakistani Refugees (WPR) and has not sought any proposal from state government and the compensation announced for refugees of Rs. 5.5 Lakh by Finance department didn't include WPR, sources said. |
