Identify land for Kashmiri migrants' rehabilitation: Rajnath Singh

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to "identify suitable land for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants", according to a government statement Friday.

In a letter to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah regarding implementation of the rehabilitation scheme, Rajnath Singh "has suggested that land may be identified near the native places they migrated from".

"He also advised that such areas should be selected keeping in view the availability of adequate security in close proximity of the place," the statement said.

According to the statement, there are about 62,000 registered Kashmiri migrant families in the country at present, who migrated from the Valley to Jammu, Delhi and other parts of India due to the onset of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1990s.

The home minister said the central government is "committed to facilitate the return of the Kashmiri migrants to the Kashmir Valley and their proper rehabilitation".

A sum of Rs.500 crore has been earmarked in the union budget 2014-15 for this purpose.