Govt likely to announce package for displaced PoK families

The government is likely to announce a comprehensive rehabilitation package soon for over 36,000 families displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), many of whom have come to India during Partition.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh is personally looking into the issue and the package is expected to be announced soon after the ongoing Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, a Home Ministry official said.
Though the Jammu and Kashmir government has asked for a over Rs 9,000-crore package, the amount would be less than the demand but it would substantial, the official added.
Altogether 36,384 families were displaced from PoK and Chhamb area of western Pakistan during 1947, and 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan and settled largely in Jammu and Kashmir besides a few other places in the rest of the country.

These families have been demanding a settlement package from the government for decades. The PoK Displaced People's Front, an organisation working for settlement of these families, had demanded Rs 25 lakh for each family.
The state government in October had approved a package of Rs 9,096 crore as one-time settlement for 36,384 families from these areas and sent the proposal to the Union Home Ministry.
The amount has been calculated by the state government on the basis Rs 25 lakh settlement package per family.