A day after J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said the “composite townships” his government intends to build for the return of Kashmiri Pandits would not be exclusive Pandit settlements, the BJP leaders said on Friday that they were on the same page as the State government.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who was in Kashmir on Friday, told reporters that though the Centre agreed with the elected government in J&K, nothing had so far been finalised about the settlements for the return of the Pandits. “I will not be able to spell out the details of the policy because nothing is finalised yet. The consultation process is going on and the J&K government and the Home Ministry have to come together and take a call,” Mr. Rijiju said.
In fact, according to sources close to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the Central government is also not in favour of building townships exclusively for the migrant Kashmiri Pandits.
Both the Central and the State government have been working out the rehabilitation plan taking into consideration various aspects, including the security concerns of the Pandits, while the Kashmiri resistance leadership and a vast majority of people feel that any exclusive settlement would be the first step towards “Israeli-style settlements in Kashmir.”
Mr. Sayeed, on Tuesday, during his conversation on the return of Kashmiri Pandits promised Mr. Rajnath Singh that his government would “acquire and provide land at the earliest for composite townships in the Valley.”
Mr. Singh on Friday told reporters in Lucknow that an agreement had been reached with Mr. Sayeed in this regard.
