Kashmiri migrant pandits demand hike in monthly relief, stage protest in Jammu

Jammu: Scores of migrant Kashmiri pandits on Sunday held a demonstration outside their residential township at Jagti to press for their various demands including a hike in the monthly relief fund and government jobs to unemployed youths of the community. The protest was organized by Jagti Tenement Committee with the participants carrying placards. They also demanded the setting up of three satellite townships in the valley for the resettlement of migrant Kashmiri pandits.

“We have been living in exile for the past 32 years and are facing various problems in meeting our daily expenditure due to rising prices. The government should enhance the monthly relief from Rs 13,000 to Rs 25,000,” committee president Shadi Lal Pandita said. He said the government should also announce an employment package for unemployed youths of the community besides interest-free bank loans for those who have crossed the age limit for government jobs.

The president of the youth wing of the committee, Naveen, said the central government had provided a package of 6,000 government jobs and an equal number of residential quarters to the unemployed migrant pandits in 2008. “The government has failed to implement the package till date. Many of the youths who got the jobs under the package are living in private rented accommodation,” he said, urging the government to speed up the process and announce more jobs for them.