The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a one-time payment of ₹5.5 lakh as a resettlement package for the 5,300 displaced families which had come from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and initially settled outside Jammu and Kashmir but later relocated to the State.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said a “historical wrong” had been corrected by the government.
In 2016, the Union Cabinet had announced ₹2,000 crore resettlement package for 36,384 families which had settled in J&K after partition on separate occasions. “Another 5,300 families initially opted to move out of the State of J&K to other parts of the country were left out of the package,” Mr. Javadekar said.
Now 5,300 such families were included in the resettlement package, he said.
“The approval will enable such displaced to become eligible to get one-time financial assistance of ₹5.5 lakhs under the existing scheme, and in turn, be able to get some sustained income which the existing scheme is aimed at,” a government statement said.
The refugees from PoJK eligible to get the ₹5.5 lakh compensation have alleged that the Centre has not fulfilled its financial commitment and they are planning a protest at Jantar Mantar here on October 22. The refugees migrated to J&K in 1947, 1965 and 1971.
