Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai revealed the news in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, explaining that the decision was made “due to improved security scenario in Kashmir Valley.”
August 2nd, 2016: New Delhi Parliament was informed on Wednesday that 880 apartments towards the government’s goal of constructing 6,000 transit accommodations for Kashmiri migrant labourers returning to the Valley had been built during the last three years.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai revealed the news in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, citing a “improved security scenario in Kashmir Valley” as the impetus for the change. To be clear, “no Two Room Tenements (TRTs) were built in 2004,” as the Minister emphasised.
However, Rai said that the tenements were built in the Jammu area (Purkhu, Muthi, Nagrota, and Jagti) to house the people who had relocated from their ancestral homes in the Kashmir valley to Jammu in 1989-1990 as a result of terrorism.
Up till the year 2011, a total of 5,248 tenements have been built in two separate stages. There have been no new tenements constructed for the aforementioned use in the previous three years,” the Minister went on to say.
In response to a question from Congress member Akhilesh Prashad Singh, Minister Rai said, “Whether in 2004, 5,242 Two-Room Tenements (TRTs) were built across several locations in Jammu including Jagti, Purkhu, Muthi, and Nagrota under the Prime Minister Package of the previous Government for the Return and Rehabilitation of Kashmiri Migrants; and whether any new tenements have been built in the last three years.”
