Govt directs officers to speed up release of compensation to PaK refugees

The government has directed the payment of Rs 5.5 lakh be made to each of the over 36,000 displaced families of Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) by December-end as compensation for the properties left over by them on other side of Line of Control (LoC).
As per the documents available with Kashmir Post, Relief and Rehabilitation department has directed that entire work of the actual payments, preparation of accounts shall be over by December 31, 2016.
The Finance department has vide the government order no 169-F of 2016 dated 14 July 2016 released an amount of Rs 50 crores to the Relief and Rehabilitation department under the Prime Minister’s Development Plan-2015 for one-time payment of compensation to the displaced families of PaK and Chamb.
Union Ministry of Home Ministry (MHA) after considering the rehabilitation package of one time settlement of the claims of PaK displaced persons which was submitted to it by state government on October 20 2014 included the proposal in PM’s reconstruction plan.
The government has decided to carry out the one time settlement of 36384 families, who were displaced from different parts of PaK and Chamb.
As per the government documents while those displaced from PaK in 1947 were 26,319 in number, those displaced by 1965 war were 3,500 and the number of displaced persons from Chamb in 1971 was 6565.
The PaK displaced persons have been demanding compensation for the properties left over by them on the other side of LoC during different wars with Pakistan.
Minister of state for relief and rehabilitation, Ajay Nanda, said the government has directed that compensation cases of the displaced persons should be cleared at the earliest.
“The scrutiny of the cases is currently going on and we have directed that no laxity would be tolerated in the matter,’’ he said.
According to the government order issued earlier, each of the identified families will be provided financial assistance of Rs 5.5 lakh and it would be in excess of any other assistance or benefit availed by the families in the past.
It has also been directed that the financial assistance shall be transferred directly under the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode into the 16-digit account of the recipient families after the revenue department ensures proper identification of the families.
Rajiv Chuni, chairman of SOS International, an organisation for displaced persons from PaK, said the government has heavily curtailed the compensation package.
“As per the initial package worked out by the government, Rs 25 lakh was to provided to each family as compensation which has not been adhered to,’’ he said.
The Government of India (GoI) had recently approved Rs 2,000 crore development package for displaced people of PaK.