Dineshwar Sharma reaches out to Jammu migrants
AJKPC DEMANDS EARLY ELECTIONS, RELIEF TO FAMILIES OF 20 SLAIN PANCHAYAT MEMBERS
JAMMU: After visiting internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits at Jagti township near Nagrota on Friday, Centre’s special representative on Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma reached out to another group of terrorism victims at Talwara migrant campin Reasi district.
Talwara camp has over 2,200 families, who had fled their homes and hearths in Reasi, Udhampur, Doda, Rajouri and Poonch districts following selective killings when terrorism was at its peak in the 1990s in Jammu region.
They continue to live in pathetic conditions at Talwara camp in the absence of basic amenities. What has aggravated their miseries is the “non-chalant” attitude of the successive state governments, which despite a Supreme Court ruling in 2004, has not provided them relief on a par with Kashmiri Pandits.
Sources privy to Sharma’s closed door parleys with Balwan Singh, president of Talwara migrant camp divulged that the latter flagged the inhuman treatment to the Jammu migrants putting up in the camp.
Later, Sharma returned to Jammu here where he met various delegations.
Prominent among them was All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) — an umbrella organisation of panches and sarpanches — led by its president Anil Sharma.
They demanded that the union government must ensure that the scheduled panchayat and municipal elections are held in a free and fair manner and the implementation of the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Indian Constitution herein Jammuand Kashmir.
The delegation also regretted that the families of over 20 panchayat members, who were killed by terrorists, have not been given any monetary help and permanent government jobs to the next of kin.