Rs 40 Lakh flat for Kashmiri Pandits in Srinagar

NEW DELHI: Kashmiri Pandits would be provided with “good quality” 1,000 apartments built at a cost of Rs 40 lakh each near Srinagar, a far cry from the shabby two-room transit accommodation provided to them in Jammu, to motivate them to return to J&K.

The government is also reaching out to the other refugees in J&K, the 5764 families who migrated from West Pakistan to Jammu Division and still do not have voting rights in the State Assembly though they have the same in the Parliamentary elections. A senior Home Ministry official said a letter has recently been sent to the state to expedite the process of granting these persons the Permanent Resident Right in J&K so that they can vote in the next state elections, buy property in the state and get recruited to state services and jobs.

“The Kashmiri Pandits were quite unhappy with the two room tenements built for them near Jammu which were only meant to be transit accommodation. Learning from that experience, the new apartments will be of a good quality and each will cost Rs 40 lakhs. The NBCC has approved the architecture and design of the said flats and will construct the same,” the official said. Jobs with monthly salaries up to Rs 30,000 and an Rs 10 lakh grant for those who want to rebuild their damaged houses is also a part of the package. “Rs 500 crore was provided in this year’s budget for rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits. A bulk of it will be spent on building the new 1000 flats near Srinagar,” the official said.