Schemes for relief & rehabilitation of migrants, repatriates to continue

Eight schemes of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the relief and rehabilitation of migrants and repatriates will be continued up to March 2020 at a cost of Rs 3,183 crore, the government today decided.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Nodi.

The schemes, under the umbrella scheme 'Relief and Rehabilitation of Migrants and Repatriates', will provide relief and rehabilitation assistance to the refugees, displaced persons, civilian victims of terrorist, communal, LWE violence and cross-border firing and mine, IED blasts on Indian territory and riot victims of various incidents, an official statement said.

The financial implication for this purpose is Rs 3,183 crore for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20. The year-wise expenditure on the scheme will be Rs 911 crore in 2017-18, Rs 1,372 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 900 crore in 2019-2020.

The eight schemes approved for continuance are already in operation, and the benefits under each will be extended to intended beneficiaries in accordance with the approved criterion, the statement said.

The schemes are: Grant of enhanced relief of Rs 5 lakh per deceased person, who died during 1984 anti-Sikh riots; central assistance for one-time settlement of displaced families from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and Chhamb settled in Jammu and Kashmir; and rehabilitation package and upgradation of infrastructure of the Bangladeshi enclaves and Cooch Behar district in West Bengal after transfer of enclaves between India and Bangladesh under a land boundary agreement.

Relief assistance to Sri Lankan refugees staying in camps in Tamil Nadu and Odisha; grant-in-aid to Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) for five years for administrative and social welfare expenses of Tibetan settlements; grant-in-aid to government of Tripura for maintenance of Brus lodged in relief camps of Tripura; rehabilitation of Bru/Reang families from Tripura to Mizoram; and central scheme for assistance to civilian victims/family of victims of terrorist, communal, left wing extremism (LWE)-related violence; and cross-border firing and mine and IED blasts on Indian territory are part of it.

To enable the migrants and repatriates, who have suffered on account of displacement, to earn a reasonable income and to facilitate their inclusion in mainstream economic activities, the government, at different points of time, started the eight schemes.