PoK refugees seek better deal from PM

An organisation of refugees from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) today addressed a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pressing for their demands that include a bigger settlement allowance.

The All JK PoK 1947 Sharnarthi Intellectual Forum also called for a minority status to Hindus and Sikhs living in the state, its general secretary Surjeet Singh said.

It handed over the memorandum to Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta at a function here.

Modi travelled to Jammu and Kashmir today in a visit to all three regions of the state.

Singh said the Modi-led government had sanctioned Rs 2,000 crore in 2015 at the rate of Rs 5.50 lakhs to each family of people displaced in 1947, 1965 and 1971.

He claimed that various panels had recommended a higher compensation of Rs 30 lakh per family.

We hope the prime minister will consider this demand sympathetically and release the remaining amount in our favour at the earliest, he said.

The forum also demanded housing colonies for the refugees who are living in unhygienic and pathetic conditions in camps since 1947.

He said the forum also sought the prime minister's intervention against the acquisition of land for Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST).

The forum claimed the land at Chatha , Rakh Chatha and Sujadpur village to the refugees of 1947 who had been given a 'meagre' compensation for it.

Their case, however, is pending in court.