A Rs 2,000 crore rehabilitation package for the Kashmiri Pandits is being readied by the Home Ministry under which 3,000 government jobs and 6,000 new flats would be offered to the displaced community.
A note is being prepared for the approval of the Union Cabinet for the Rs 2,000 crore package for the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, who had to leave their homeland following rise of militancy in late 1980s, in Kashmir valley, a government official said.
Under the proposal, 3,000 government jobs will be provided to educated youths of the community and 6,000 new flats will be offered as transit accommodation along with a longterm plan of constructing two-three composite townships in the Valley.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has already assured to provide land for the proposed flats. These jobs will be in addition to the 3,000 jobs already offered to the Pandits under the previous UPA government’s 2004 package of Rs 1,618 crore and 5,242 two-room tenements constructed in Jammu and allotted to the migrants.
The new flats to be built in the Valley will not be on twin-sharing basis as earlier so as to enable migrants to move back with their families.
The Home Ministry is also working on a Phase-II plan which involves permanent rehabilitation of Pandits in two-three composite townships of 2,500 families each to be built near Srinagar and Anantnag.
Currently, there is a small transit accommodation of 200 flats in Sheikhpura, Budgam in the Valley.
PTI
