The Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor’s administration on Sunday passed an order to release the salaries of those migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees “who have resumed their duties in Kashmir”, amid ongoing protests by migrant Pandits in Jammu, to transfer them to the Jammu province.
All the concerned heads of departments are directed to release the salary of PM package and other minority employees, who have resumed their duties in Kashmir, for the intervening period, without any gap, as a special measure by adjusting it, in view of the forthcoming Maha Shivratri festival, an official order issued by J&K Additional Secretary Akshay Labroo said.
Over 5,500 Pandit employees, employed under the special Prime Minister’s package since 2010 to help the migrant community to return , left the Valley in 2021, after a series of attacks by militants on Pandit and Hindu employees. Hundreds of Pandits are yet to join their duties in Kashmir.
According to official figures, four Kashmiri Pandits, a non-local bank manager from Rajasthan, a Hindu teacher and a Hindu salesman from Jammu and four non-local labourers were killed by militants in 2022.
Migrants’ demands
A delegation of Kashmiri migrant Pandit employees, which called on Democratic Progressive Azad Party chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad in Jammu on February 10, highlighted their demands to revoke the policy where migrant employees had to sign a bond not to seek transfer from the Valley. They also demanded the transfer of the migrant Pandit employees to the Jammu province, till the situation in Kashmir improved.
In the first week of February, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him “not to force Kashmiri Pandit government officials to return to the Valley amid the targeted killings”.
“As part of my Bharat Jodo Yatra, I met a delegation of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu who told me that government officials are forcing them to return to Kashmir,” the letter read.
