PM in attendance, refinery to get going In India for decades, Pak migrants pin hope on Modi’s citizenship vow
BARMER VIPs including Governor Singh, CM Raje to be present; tight security in place
The stage is set for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch the “project commencement work” of HPCL refinerycum-petrochemical complex at Pachpadra in Barmer district on Tuesday.
“The Prime Minister will land at Uttarlai Air Force station in Barmer at 11.40 am after leaving from Delhi at 10.10 am. At 11.45 am, he will fly by helicopter to Pachpadra and reach there at 12.20 pm. He will inaugurate an exhibition and also address the gathering along with other dignitaries,” said an official familiar with the schedule. “The Prime Minister will leave Pachpadra at 2.20 pm and reach Uttarlai at 2.25 pm from where he will fly to Delhi.”
Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh, chief minister Vasundhara Raje, union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, union irrigation minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and union sports and youth welfare minister Rajyavardhan Rathore will be present among others.
Pradhan reached Pachpadra on Sunday and took stock of preparations for the event. Barmer district administration officials, and state petroleum department and HPCL officials apprised Pradhan about the preparations.
Security has been tightened in not only Pachpadra but also in the border areas by the BSF. The state DGP and IG, intelligence, along with SPG have been overseeing the security for the past few days. Barmer collector Nakate Shivprasad Madan could not be contacted for comment.
The opposition Congress is up in arms as the Vasundhara Raje government cancelled an earlier MoU signed by the Gehlot government with HPCL in 2013. The then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had laid the foundation stone at the same location in Pachpadra in September 2013.
Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot alleged that the delay was deliberate as the BJP wanted to extract political mileage ahead of the assembly elections likely in December this year, a charge that state BJP president Ashok Parnami has denied.
Meanwhile, Vedanta’s Cairn Oil and Gas, operating India’s largest onshore oil block in Rajasthan, is planning to invest ₹37,000 crore to ramp up the crude production from prolific oil fields of Barmer, an official release stated. On Sunday, Pradhan inaugurated the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) program for Mangala-Bhagyam-Aishwarya (MBA) fields. The program will help in achieving the production target of 5 lakh barrels oil per day (bopd) from the Rajasthan assets.
JAIPUR: BARMER: “I am 80 years old and residing in India for more than two decades. How long should I wait to be granted Indian citizenship...
JOGARAM BHEEL, Pak migrant
As member of the highpower committee formed to address issues related to Pak migrants, I am trying my best to resolve it... TARUNRAI KAGA, Vhohtan MLA
Life has not been easy for Jogaram Bheel. The eightyyear-old keeps swinging between hope and despair.
An immigrant from Pakistan who has made Rajasthan’s Barmer his home, he hopes that having spent more than two decades in India, he will be granted citizenship. At the same time, he despairs over the fact that his application for the same was once rejected due to a minor issue some 14 years ago.
It was in 2004 that the then government amended the Citizenship Rules, 1956, for Pakistani nationals of the minority Hindu community, allowing the district collectors to grant citizenship to the migrants.
Jogaram had rushed to the nearest camp and submitted his application. It was however, rejected. “I fell short by five days in the mandatory minimum period of stay required in India to be granted citizenship,” said Jogaram.
The rulebooks say that a migrant from Pakistan can apply for and be granted Indian citizenship after staying for seven years in the country.
As Barmer gets ready to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16, Jogaram is once again hopeful that the promise he made in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections in 2014 will finally be fulfilled.
“I am 80 years old and residing in India for more than two decades. How long should I wait to be granted Indian citizenship,” he asked.
Addressing a public meeting at Pachpadra town ahead of the general elections in 2014, Modi had assured that in BJP came to power, it would grant citizenship to migrants from Pakistan the right but they will also be treated equally in India.
He was then a PM candidate and now Modi will be visiting the same land at Pachpadra to attend the ‘work commencement function’ of the Rs 43,000-crore 9MMTPA Barmer refinery —a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and the Rajasthan government.
According to activists, more than 1.35 lakh Pakistani Hindus have come to India since 1965 and now their population is estimated to have risen to around 5 lakh. In Rajasthan, their numbers is said to be 21,000 and counting.
Most of them take up odd jobs or live in ghettos. Some, who got educated, find jobs that pay them more. But such migrants often have to face difficulties because of their Pakistani citizenship.
Hindu Singh Sodha, who heads Seemant Lok Sanghthan — an NGO working for welfare of Pakistani Hindus seeking to settle in India, blamed the lack of proper implementation of policies on ground level as one of the major reasons for migrants’ suffering.
Claiming that there was no specific policy for the migrants in the country, Sodha said that for the past several years they have been demanding a permanent mechanism that will bring lasting solution for Pak Hindu migrants in India.
Sodha said that it was appreciable that the ruling government has for the first time given a commendable consolidated legal regime to the Pak Minority Migrants. The powers for granting citizenship were also delegated to the district collectors more than a year ago. “It is, however, unfortunate that the migrants are still deprived of the facilities as promised in the said legal regime,” he said.
BJP MLA from Chohtan constituency in Barmer, Tarunrai Kaga, also a Pakistani migrant who came to India in 1971, however, claimed the BJP government has taken several steps for welfare of Pak migrants. He, however, admitted that there were many other issues that need to be addressed. “As member of the high-power committee formed to address the issue related to Pak migrants, I am trying my best to resolve the issues as soon as possible,” Kaga added.
Opposition Congress, however, alleged that the Modo government has failed to fulfil te promises it made. “Soon after it came into power in 2014, the then UPA government had given power to district collectors to grant citizenship to Pak migrants. The previous Congress government in state too took several steps for their welfare. The BJP government, instead feeling the pain of the people, betrayed them after making big promises,” said Congress district vice-president Yagyadutt Joshi.
Among others, the Pak migrants are demanding refugee status, rehabilitation package and reservation under backward class quota.