On May 24, the J&K government announced an extension of the deadline for the programme “Central assistance for one time settlement of displaced families of Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir (1947) and Chhamb (1965 and 1971) settled in Jammu and Kashmir” from March 31, 2022, to March 31, 2024.
The J&K Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction issued an order extending the programme with an authorised budget of Rs 2,000,000,000.
The goal is to help displaced families who, for whatever reason, were unable to apply for the programme in time. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has stipulated that the extension cannot “continue beyond the sunset date of March 31, 2024.”
Following a request and a series of reminder letters from the Union Territory (J&K) administration, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the same (extension) on May 3, 2023, leading to the current decision.
Notably, on January 24, 2022, the J&K Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction issued a notification via endorsement No DMRRR-ER/76/2021, and on February 9, 2022, they issued an extension until March 5, 2022, so that claimants could still submit their paperwork to the designated authorities.
After getting the go light from the appropriate authorities, the department sent a letter requesting an extension of the scheme’s deadline to the Ministry of Home Affairs on July 12, 2022, followed by a reminder letter on December 9, 2022.
This led to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Department of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh Affairs extending the deadline for the scheme “Central assistance for one time settlement of displaced families of POJK (1947) and Chhamb (1965 & 1971) settled in the Jammu & Kashmir” from March 31, 2022 to March 31, 2024. This was part of a larger rehabilitation package approved by the union cabinet on May 3, 2023.
The MHA had also requested that the government of J&K “complete the process of identifying all remaining eligible families of the scheme” and submit it (MHA) authenticated proposals as soon as possible in a communique to the J&K Chief Secretary.
Inclusion of 5,300 DP families of Jammu and Kashmir-1947 who opted to move outside the (erstwhile) state of Jammu and Kashmir but later returned and settled there in the Rehabilitation Package approved by it (union cabinet) on November 30, 2016 for Displaced families of PoJK and Chhamb under the PM’s Development Package 2015 for Jammu and Kashmir was approved by the union cabinet on October 9, 2019, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The decision made it possible for these DP families to receive the Rs 5.5 lakhs in one-time financial aid available under the current plan, and so to begin receiving the kind of steady income that the present scheme was designed to provide.
It should be noted that 31,619 households relocated from Pakistan Occupied territories of J&K (PoJK) to the (former) state of J&K after the 1947 Pakistani incursion in J&K. Of them, 26,319 families ultimately made Jammu and Kashmir their permanent home, whereas 5,300 households first chose to go elsewhere in India. Another 10,065 households had to leave the Chhamb Niabat region as a result of the Indo-Pak conflicts in 1965 and 1971. There were 3,500 displaced households as a result of the conflict in 1965, and another 6,565, mostly due to the fighting in 1971.
The cabinet authorised the package on November 30, 2016, covering 36,384 affected households. This number is comprised of 10,065 displaced families from the Chhamb Niabat region and 26,319 displaced families from the PoJK who have relocated to J&K. The agreed package does not include the 5300 families of PoJK Displaced Persons (DP) who had already chosen to relocate outside of the state of J&K to other areas of the nation.
On his visit to Jammu and Kashmir on November 7, 2015, the Prime Minister announced a development package that included Rs 2,000,000,000 in one-time Central Assistance to fund a rehabilitation programme for the 36,384 families who had been displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Chhamb Valley and had since relocated to Jammu and Kashmir.
The planned package would have been the latest in a long line of aid and reconstruction initiatives launched by the government of India or the (former) state government of Jammu and Kashmir. The displaced people of PoJK and Chhamb have repeatedly asked the government for compensation for the homes and land they were forced to abandon during the conflict. This is despite the fact that the central and J&K governments have provided numerous rehabilitation packages in the past, including agricultural land, housing plots, houses, and other facilities, as well as cash assistance.
