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Mehbooba called on J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha at the Raj Bhawan in her first one-on-one meeting with the L-G in about five years
In her proposal, Mehbooba said every displaced Kashmiri Pandit family should be allotted half a kanal (one kanal is 505.87 sq mt) of state land in their district of origin, contingent upon their willingness to return. File image/PTI
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has advocated the reservation of assembly seats and free land for Kashmiri Pandits to facilitate their dignified return to the Valley. Her remarks are being seen as a potential thaw in her relations with the BJP-led central government.
Mehbooba called on lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha at the Raj Bhawan in her first one-on-one meeting with the L-G in about five years and submitted an “inclusive and phased roadmap” to facilitate “meaningful progress” on the front. The Peoples Democratic Party chief also submitted copies of the proposal to union home minister Amit Shah and chief minister Omar Abdullah.
Quoting data from the Relief Office established by the government of Jammu and Kashmir in 1990, Mehbooba said 44,167 migrant families were officially registered as having fled the Valley due to security reasons in the 1990s. Of these, about 90 per cent (39,782) families were of Kashmiri Pandits. By 2020, the ministry of home Affairs said that the number of displaced Kashmiri Pandit families had risen to 64,951.
In her proposal, Mehbooba said every displaced Kashmiri Pandit family should be allotted half a kanal (one kanal is 505.87 sq mt) of state land in their district of origin, contingent upon their willingness to return.
“This issue goes beyond politics and touches the very core of our collective conscience. It is a moral imperative and a societal responsibility to ensure that our Pandit brothers and sisters, who were tragically displaced from their homeland, are provided with the opportunity to return in a manner that is dignified, secure and sustainable,” she said in the letter.
Mehbooba said every political party in the union territory, irrespective of ideology, has consistently supported the idea of their return.
“The shared pain of their displacement and the yearning for reconciliation bind us all in the belief that Kashmir can once again be a place where communities coexist peacefully. To facilitate meaningful progress on this front, an inclusive and phased roadmap has been attached for your consideration,” she said.
Mehbooba said such gestures would cleanse the majority Muslim community of the taint that they had not tried hard enough to prevent the Pandits’ forced migration in the 1990s. Most of the Pandit exodus took place while her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was union home minister.
(With agency inputs)
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