PM's employment scheme fails to lure displaced Kashmiri Pandits

The so-called rehabilitation and resettlement plan called PM's employment package for the displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley is in dire straits. The recruited youth are subjected to terrible living conditions besides facing a hostile administrative ambience at their work place. These hapless employees are fighting for their survival in the Valley which forced them to approach administrative tribunals and courts to get justice exposing the inept handling of much-hyped PM's recruitment scheme's intention

The question of the return and resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits, the indigenous people of the Valley, keep resurfacing all the time. The community was forced to move out from the Valley since the 1990s due to terrorism-related security concerns and until now, they are living as Internally Displaced Migrants all across the nation. Every government, politician and administrator keep on repeating that 'Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits' – but even the scheme launched under Prime Minister's Special Employment Package has failed to change the status quo

"Kashmiri Pandits are an integral part of the Kashmiri society and their dignified return was one of the unfinished agendas of the PDP," says Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) when she met delegates of Kashmiri Pandits recently in New Delhi.

The question of the return and resettlement of Kashmiri Pandits, the indigenous people of the Valley, keep resurfacing all the time. The community was forced to move out from the Valley since the 1990s due to terrorism-related security concerns and until now, they are living as Internally Displaced Migrants all across the nation. Every government, politician and administrator keep on repeating that 'Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits' – but even the scheme launched under Prime Minister's Special Employment Package has failed to change the status quo.

Vasu Pandita, recently appointed as Assistant Compiler in the Finance Department under Prime Minister's employment package SO-194 of 2020 for Kashmiri displaced youth, says, "we are getting jobs in the Valley under rehabilitation programme, but we do not have a place to stay. Employees who work in the Valley under this special package since 2012 haven't received accommodation till date, and now due to recent amendments in the scheme we to have to suffer a lot."

In 2009, under the leadership of Manmohan Singh, a comprehensive package was introduced amounting to Rs1,618.40 crore for the return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Migrants. On similar lines, in 2015, under the NDA government, another PM package SRO-202 was introduced with an estimated expenditure of Rs2,000 crore for providing additional 3000 state government jobs for the Kashmiri migrants. The package also included the construction of accommodations for the Kashmiri migrants to whom state government jobs have been provided/will be provided.

The General Administration Department (GAD) of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has issued an order by making SO-194 applicable to all those PM package employees, who were appointed after 17 June last year. Under SO-194, the migrant employees working in Kashmir valley will be getting only basic salaries without any allowances like house rent allowance (HRA), dearness allowance (DA), tour allowance (TA), medical allowance and no increment during the probation period. These posts are supernumerary posts and the funds for their salaries are not borne on establishment of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir. The funds for their salaries are borne completely by the Central government.

Hence, the changes in the SO-194 on the PM package will reduce their salary to basic salary without any allowances. PM package employees of Displaced Kashmiri Pandits are forced to live in a rented place with high rental rates in the Valley turning them into an easy target in insecure places with a paltry emolument.

Vasu believed that the amendment of SRO-202 which is now SO-194 should not be implemented on them as it reduces their salaries.

On the contrary, Ashok Pandita, Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrant), say, "government has done more than enough for Kashmiri migrants to get rehabilitated, but it's the people's mindset which needs to be changed."

He explains that before the PM Package also, there were initiatives taken by the government to bring back migrants but the people didn't turn up. Before these packages were implemented, recruitments had also taken place. The Kashmiri Pandits who got selected in those posts never complained about accommodation or any other facility. They get full salary and promotion as they have been selected from regular recruitment drives instead of PM packages that provide supernumerary posts.

To provide the solution for accommodation, the Commissioner says that the construction for accommodation is going on across Kashmir in 24 places and the allotment will soon start. The government is planning to provide full accommodation to all the recruits who are serving in Kashmir sooner than later.

Sanjay Tickoo of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti says, "it is the duty of the Relief and Rehabilitation Department to provide accommodation to these employed youths. Moreover, it needs to provide the accommodation keeping in view of security scenarios especially after selective killings of Kashmiri Pundits took place late last year."

He emphasized that due to SO-194, the selective candidates will only get a basic salary for two years and if they are not getting accommodation, how they are going to survive with high rents and utilities. The Kashmiri Muslim majority is also being reluctant to provide them shelter as they fear that the militants can attack them too.

Highlighting the drawbacks of PM's special package, Tickoo says these packages were started for the settlement of Kashmiri Pandits, but the state in power at that time changed the package from Kashmiri Pandits to Kashmiri Migrants which includes anyone who can prove that they left the Valley in the early 1990s. This has led to the corruption of the package as people who belong to the different communities have also documented themselves and hence availing all the benefits without any cause.

Disenchanted Tickoo observed, "there can be no rehabilitation with the introduction of packages and transit camps if the Government of India is ready to devise a plan that can accommodate the community within the majority community so that a sense of security and harmony can prevail, then only the return of Kashmiri Pandits can be possible."

The hapless Kashmiri Pandit community who leaves there are also in lurch. Ratan Chaku, who never left the Valley and comes from a few families who represent Pandits in Kashmir says, "if the government is persistent about rehabilitation, first they should care about non-migrants like us who are bridging the gap which occurred in these 30 years."

He added how after spending 30 years in the Valley, they feel that it was better to migrate than to stay as they have no avenues to survive a dignified life. No support from the government is disheartening for them. He stated that the Kashmiri Pandit residents did a survey in the Valley where 55 families are living below the poverty line but the government is busy with packages that didn't include the non-migrants. With the resistance and court cases, this time the non-migrants were also able to apply for the PM Package.

The so-called rehabilitation and resettlement plan called PM's employment package for the displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley is in dire straits. The recruited youth are subjected to terrible living conditions besides facing a hostile administrative ambience at their work place. These hapless employees are fighting for their survival in the Valley which forced them to approach administrative tribunals and courts to get justice exposing the inept handling of much-hyped PM's recruitment scheme's intention.

(The author is a Kashmir-based journalist)